Hi guys , I know I'll get blasted for going to an 8 volt battery, but hey it starts like a brand new car.. I was worried about the 6 volt radio ( bone stock 55 country sedan ) so I wired in a 15 amp capacity buck converter and adjusted the output down to 6.2 volts to the radio , seems to work as expected. But the i got thinking (dangerous ) why cant I wire it into the yellow wire at the solenoid since it seems to be the main if not only power feed off the battery , effectively controlling the feed to everything to 6.2 volts ? I'd be interested in your thoughts... Thanks Fred
At 15 amps capacity it would be way undersize for all the load of all the lights, heater blower, coil, radio, etc. If you have the correct size battery cables for 6 volt, (they are much bigger than 12 volt cables) and good grounds, it should start just fine, if the starter is in good shape and the battery and generator are in good condition.
Going to 8 volt has always been the lazy way to compensate for other issues with a six volt system but as you figure is hard on light bulbs and radios. I'm 77 and that is one thing I picked up from my then in the late 50's early 60's from my then step father that has stuck. He was pretty adamant that it wasn't a good idea in the long run although a few of his cronies thought it was great.
Agree with @BJR , 15 amps would be overloaded. My question would be if the regulator would keep the battery at 8V? The gas gauge in 55 was a variable ohm unit, and I don't think 8V would affect them greatly. The lighting will also handle the 8V IMHO.
I'm glad to here that the fuel gauge will tolerate .. I adjusted the regulator to 9.5 and keeps the 8 volt up
Back in the day, we used a lot of 8 volt batteries, on tractors! It was a very common thing. But when they got hard to find and expensive , I started using modified 12 volt GM alternators with a 12 volt battery, on the six volt tractors! That made those six volt starters work great! But the tractors didn’t have many accessories!, When I put a 430 in my 55 Fairlane, back in the sixties, I just put a twelve volt battery and generator in there and tapped my six volt needs from the middle of the battery . Then I figures out I only had six volts for my ignition, so I ran a separate switch for it. Kinda doubled as a theft deterrent .Batteries back then had outside lead connections between the cells. I think if I wanted to up date a six volt system today, I would get two smaller six volt batteries and hook them up in series and tap my six volts off the first battery! And add a 12 volt alternator. This is how I did it back in day when a ton of “ gizmos” were not offered. Bones
I've used 'em on old 50's trucks that were 6 volts-actually worked great, especially in starting. Never changed anything, yeah, the bulbs didn't last nearly as long but they were cheap back then. Used to have a battery rebuilder build one for me.
It worked 'pretty good' in my first car. (54 Ford with a late(r) 312 Merc engine ! The engine just needed to start pretty quickly or the starter would start slowing down.. 6sally6
An old (non smart) 6V charger would probably give an 8v battery some charging, their voltage is rather unstable and load dependent. A faster option would be a 12V charger with a suitable light bulb in series to limit the current. There are plenty of other adjustable power supplies where you can adjust the max voltage and current, one of those would do the job great. Just set it for the max voltage and max current and let it do its thing. Still, I'd stick with 6V battery and fixing the issues instead, or a 12V conversion. I really don't like "solutions" that bring more problems than they solve.
Bought this farm-fresh '53 F 100 with a 215 6 cyl. and ran it for a summer, never realized it had an 8 volt battery (never a problem) until I pulled the 215 and put in a 352 and converted to 12v. The front springs didn't care much for the 352...but it sure gave it a nice "rake".
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