Got the car home today after spraying starter fluid and using a jump box to get it to crank . All the lights was suppose to work ( so the seller said) but nothing does. He said the car was converted to 12v , when i went to hook the jump box up i had to hook the positive to the negative battery terminal because the positive battery terminal is hooked to the motor for ground , that goes against everything ive ever been taught, can someone please tell me why this is, also i cant find a fuse panel to check for any blown fuses. The car drove good,shifted good and stopped good,its just this electrical problem i got to take care of first. And yeah, im sure i will be asking alot of stupid question for you all to answer. Im ready to get this resto started.
The fuses are behind the light switch or should i say part of if it's anything like my Falcon. Ford did that for a long time.
You might want to consider buying a new wiring harness since those old 54s had cloth wrapped wiring and it is probably pretty brittle and dangerous by now.The insulation on the wires in my old 54 coupe would just wipe off when I tried to move them around. They were originally positive ground also, thats probably why the positive wire was going to the engine block. Ford went to negative ground in 56.
If the car has the original 6 volt battery and wiring it wil be a positive ground system. Nothing scary, just different from Modern 12 volt negative ground systems.
My 54 did not have that. So that is different for me as well. But agreed on hte wiring. The cloth stuff will fail at some point.
right on i also have a 54!!.......could it be possible that someone just put a 12volt battery in place of the 6 volt and it burned up all the 6 volt bulbs and gauges? cause basically switching to 12 volt all you do is put the battery in neg ground(which sounds like they didnt), change out all your 6 volt bulbs to 12 volt bulbs ,change generator to alternator,step down you gauges with a 12 volt to 6 volt converter and a few other things....your 6 volt starter will still work on 12 volt.......might be a possibility why none of your electrical works,....i would first start at the battery and see what it is 6 volt or 12 volt.
Cool car man. I've been looking for new cloth coated wiring harness for my 52 customline. Check out road island wiring.
Join the 52-59 Ford Owner's Social Group and you will find answers to darn near anything you could want to know about your car. Do a quick intro and get ready for about 1000 new friends.
ditto. also maybe look to see if someone mounted a ballast resistor on somewhere close to the dist., like the firewall (usually a good sign that it's been converted to 12v).
I just got a 54 also that has been converted to 12 volt. There is a ballast on the fire wall by the distributor. Can someone enlighten me?
Normally your points need to run at 6-8 volts....keeps them lasting longer.....the ballast resistor does that....its wired in such a manner that while you start it, you get a 12volt "hot shot" which gives you a stronger spark and helps start the car easier. Once your ignition switch goes back to the on position however, the voltage is fed through the ballast resistor and it drops.
In this instant, is there 2 wires running to the ignition coil? One through the ballast and one from the starter solenoid? Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
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