1953 chevy 210 12v to 6v

I have a 53 Chevy 210 4 door, 216 straight 6 3 on tree, I have successfully changed the car over to 12v, alternator, coil all lights, flasher. it has been running great. I didn't hook up the heater motor because when i did it, the weather was nice and i didn't need heat. Now that the weather is getting colder i decided to hook up the heater, i just figured i would buy a ballast resistor and hook it up after the heater switch, to save money. Thats what i did, so i turned it on and i got nothing. i tried it without the resistor in the line, and the heater motor worked fine, i put a volt gauge on it without the resistor and it read 14v even, i put the resistor back on and it was at 8v. but when the resistor is connected the motor wont turn on at all. not sure what to do any suggestions would be appreciated, Thanks

 

What type of resistor do you have, where did you get it, how is it hooked up. I picked mine up from Speedway, I just measured it and it 1.2 Ohms. I have it hood in the power supply line. A pic of mine hooked up is here:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=689017

 

I just picked up a standard ballast resistor from auto zone for 7 bucks. starting to get pretty cold out in the mornings, just trying to find a quck fix.

 

does it already have a 12v motor in it?

This is the cheapest 12v motor I know of that will work. I used one of these in my '53 sedan. http://www.cl***icparts.com/1947-63-1964-66-w_Air-Heater-Motor-12-Volt/productinfo/68-009/

 

I don't think so, I bought the car all stock with all of the 6v components, and when i bought it, it worked on 6v.

 

Take your 6 volt motor down to the parts store and try to match it up to a 12 volt motor. I did this years ago with my 54 Chevy and found a exact match. I cannot remember what it came out of.

 

I would try it before the heater switch.
Dom

 

I just tried it before the switch, and still nothing. all the ballast resistor does is glow red hot, The heater motor works on the 12v but the little element inside the switch starts to glow red hot, is that a bad thing? I will probably just run it on 12v if it is ok for the switch to glow like that, but it only glows on low because it is stopping some of the current, when i turn the switch on high it dosen't glow anymore.

 

Years ago I used a small ****on style drop resistor on a 53 gmc 12 volt conversion. Oh yeah, you must put the resistor in the 12 volt lead "before" the switch.

vintagepartsclub.com b-10606 voltage drop resistor

 

Should the little metal coil in the heater switch glow red hot?

 

It's because your doubling the voltage to the heater fan control. There has to be a correct resister to use for your application. I remember the name Runtz for resisters used for sending units and probably heater fan controls. I say get rid of the ballast resister and look for a Runtz.
Dom

 

Hey Dom, I found this after a search.
http://vintageautogarage.com/heater-motor-dropping-resistor.html

Dom