My buddy bought a 1955 Dodge truck CHEAP!!! Wants to know how hard to change from 6 volt to 12 volt. I think gauges might be something needing a resistor of some sort.... and not sure if the 6 volt is negative ground. Anybody done it? Alternator, battery, and.....???

Bulbs obviously, but gauges, electric wipers..... starter....
My buddy thinks starter doesn't matter....?

In our 1940 Chrysler, for things like wiper motor, heater motor we used a 12 volt to 6 volt transformer to pad down the current. Found on ebay, can get a pic for tomorrow if needed. The starter draws a lot of current, and I wouldn't use a transformer, but should be able to handle 12v.

In our case we installed a 12v wiring and changed all the lights etc, but couldn't find replacement electric motors in 12v.

Mike

You did not use a transformer for anything,

Transformers are for AC voltage. Your car uses DC voltage.

You may have used a dropping resistor of some sort.

Can't ask for anything better! Thanks!!!!

Came with a rust free and pretty mint box, two sets of good rear fenders, rust free straight spare front fenders, the truck is extremely clean, turns over, all new tuneup stuff including the carb, just a deal that fell in our laps....

I don't see the V8 emblem on the nose, so I assume that has the flathead 6.

Probably a good thing I don't stumble across stuff like that, I would have to hack it up and make it into a hot rod. It would almost be a crime to convert something in that nice original condition into a hot rod, but I wouldn't be able to resist. Gene

I don;t know how cheap cheap is, but I saw one for sale around here in nowhere neat as nice condition for about $5k.

This one is rust free except a little spot the rear of the cab down low, it has mint floors and rockers, seat is nice, dash looks mint, box is fantastic just needs to be put back on the truck. Electric wipers!!! They work! Looks like fluid change and it will be a nice driver honestly....

Price?
$400 Canadian. That's $300 U.S. dollars right now.....
Registration all in order. Nice truck!!!!

Flathead 6. He is saying he will probably leave it stock. It's pretty nice in person!! And he isn't a "leaving stock" kinda guy...

I always seem to find the overpriced deals.

Nice looking truck

Yea, for $300, i would have already been tearing it apart for its new drive train, disc brakes, and a comfy seat. Its probably in a better place. Gene

It's got a comfy seat.... lol This is BEFORE we started cleaning the truck..... just the way we got it.

Who turned my picture sideways???

You took a "Portrate" picture (you turned your camera sideways to get a tall picture rather then a wide picture), but as far as I can tell, the site only posts "Landscape" pictures. Gene

Transformer was wrong word, should have used step down. Anyway these are avail and we used them for the motors that should not be run on 12v.

Mike

Gauges will be looking for 6 volts (nominal - actually 6.5-7.2v). Can't remember if any of them care about polarity.

I'm sure someone will chime in who can remember this...

The starter motor won't care a lick. your reverse polarity on the armature by changing to negative ground, but you also change it on the field coils at the same time. The net result is the motor still spins the same direction.

If you had a permanent magnet motor, now, that would spin backwards. But our cars have field coils, so it don't matter a bit.

In theory, they will pass substantially more amperage turning over. In practice, they will spin faster, which makes the engine start quicker and easier. This allows less time to build up heat in the starter motor. Also, an electric motor is what is called an inductive load. In other words, the will pass more current at a slower speed than they do at a higher speed. This means that being spun at 12 volts, it won't drop fully double the current. Because, it will be spinning faster, which tends to regulate the current flow.

I've been there and done this a number of times, with good result. Yes, you could theoretically run into trouble if you have a problem starting the engine, and sit & run the starter a super long time. But a good running car that starts easy, with a good condition starter motor, should not pose any problem whatsoever.

I remember using a small voltage regulator chip on the fuel gauge for my 1949 Plymouth p18. IIRC, I used an LM317 which knocked the voltage down to 5 volts. It was too low, and the gage never functioned accurately. The car had vacuum wipers, and all other gauges were mechanical.

My 1954 half ton pickup has electric wipers, but they're not hooked up... I will need to come up with some kind of a cunning plan. My thought has been to run them through an ammeter, measure the draw with them running, and install a hi amperage resistor that will slow them to a reasonable level. But, looking to get a garage built before I worry too much about that...

Hope this helps, at least bumping the thread up to the top...

-William

I did it to my '55 Plymouth. The only real problem was the wiper motor. It grounds through the motor case, so I had to find a '56 wiper motor.

My thread at Forwardlook

My thread at Allpar