I'm new to the 6v game of things and am working on a 1950 ford. I recieved the car in decent shape and have been driving and working on it. After two stops the other day, I went to crank it for the third time, and nothing happened. just a click and the zzzz of the starting motor. No fire. none. A fella stopped in a caddy to give me a jump. It started right up. Drove fine all of the way home. Got home turned the car off, then tried to restart. Same thing. nothing. I then realized upon examination that the man who put a new battery in for me when I bought the car, put the batt in backwards. instead of pos ground, he put neg. ground. I changed that back,and nothing. I then replaced all frayed and damaged wires, replaced starter solenoid, coil, polarized generator. The car still does nothing more than click when I hit the starter.I'm out of Ideas and becoming frustrated of the fact that I didn't catch the reverse sooner, and that all of a sudden my cool lowrider has become a 3500 lb. paper weight. Has anyone ever faced this situation before? has the stuff really hit the fan? What should I try next? thanks for your help
Your battery is probably toast. When they are put in backwards it will drain the battery instead of charging it. Try taking the cables off and slow charging it and see if it will recover. Some times it works, some times it don.t.
Hey WSL , I thought about the battery thing too after you left ! I'm glad to see that you came here for advice. If you don't have a charger for 6v let me know. I'm going to be working on my cars all afternoon sunday so I'll be around. Just shoot me a line here or call the number on the front of the card I wrote this web address on. Just call after noon if that is what you do. I have a charger and I have the 6v battery in my '54 that might crank it if we are lucky
Along with possibly runing the battery, the regulator and genny may be toast. At the very least the genny will need to be repolarized by lifting the Field lead off the Regulator and MOMENTARILY touching to the Battery terminal of the Regulator. This assumes that the regulator contacts have been cleaned and nothing is burned out. While you are at it remove the regulator from the cars sheetmetal and clean the hole area surfaces to shiny metal.The only thing grounding the system is some rusted sheetmetal screws!
putting the bat in backwards does not hurt the battery. You must drain it completely in order to recharge it correctly. Be sure to repolarize the regulator.
Aren't '50 fords positive ground cars? I may be wrong but I thought they had positive ground in 50. You might want to investigate this....
If it started up ok on a jump start it sounds like the battery to me. Try charging it up like the other guys say, or lend another battery off someone and try it. If it don't work off another battery you can then start looking else where.
Thanks everyone for all of your help. After charging the bat, overnight, and double checking all of the connections, she fired right up. Pumping just over 7 volts off of the gen., 6 1/2 with all systems on. I drove her today, and once more she snarled like a tiger. Thanks again!!!!!!!
Cool man , hope to see her prowling the streets soon. Now , stick around on the board and enjoy the fun that is the HAMB. Your first step is an introducton to the group which will be followed by a little razzing then your in !
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