Technical 6 volt 1955 Ford Battery Issues

Kind folks...we have a 55 Ford Fairlane with original 6 volt system. Previous owners placed an electric fuel pump along underside frame. That pump started having problems so decided to get ready to change it out. Noticed the very old battery on last legs. Tried to charge on a 6 volt setting from big charger but would not wake up. Took battery out and replaced it a few hours ago. Now I see dome light is very weak and the electric fuel pump will not even run, much less can I turn over the engine. What the heck did I do wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated by this less than novice mechanic. My 15 year old son expects his father to figure this out quickly. Help? The new battery is fully charged. I have heard about reversing polarity or something when changing out a battery, but have no ideas what that is. Totally in the dark about the whole situation.

 

By the way..I have the positive to ground and I hooked the charger pos to pos, neg to neg. So I should not have had a problem with the hookup. If I had accidentally touched the wrong leads for even a half second, would that have caused these problems?

 

How do you know the new battery has not been drained? Use a voltmeter, you can get under $10 at Harbor Freight

If it's drained already, it must have a draw. Check for draw by shutting all switches off, including dome light. Then unhook one battery cable. Put a test light or voltmeter between that battery post and the cable you took off. If the light is on, or if the voltmeter shows voltage on the scale, then it has a draw.

If it has a draw, report back...

no, if you switched battery charger cables reversed, it should not have done anything besides sparks..IMO

 

yep, make sure battery fully charged. have good points, adjusted properly? getting fuel to carburetor?

 

6 volt batteries always sit on the shelf. They never seen fully charged when new. Also 6 volt systems are sensitive to dirty connections and make sure your running nice thick leads.

 

I have new battery on charger now, just in case store was wrong about being charged. Looking for my voltmeter. The leads are brand new and clean. Car ran well until all this D.I.Y was commenced a couple of days ago by me. I sure hope I have not done something really stupid...but I can't think of anything obviously wrong. Will get back later, and I thank you for your input so far. Anyone else please chime in. THX.

 

If lights etc are weak they are not getting power. If everything is weak either the battery is dead or there is something the matter with the wiring, either the ground or the main feed to the system. That means, most likely, a loose or dirty connection. If some things (like starter) work normally and others (like lights) don't that helps narrow it down.

But what you describe is most likely a weak battery or bad connection. What happens when you hook up the charger? If the lights work normally that means the battery is weak. A charger will have enough oomph to make the lights horn radio etc work but not to turn the starter unless it is a big garage style charger with a booster feature.

 

If you replaced the battery cables, did you get the correct ones for a 6 volt system? They are much bigger then 12 volt cables as they carry more amps.

 

What he said. Many modern chain parts stores don't even carry battery cables big enough for a 6 volt system. I can't count how many hard-starting 6 volt systems I've seen that are caused by too-small cables. The skinny cables wind up there because they are all the local parts store carries, and few people know the difference.

 

Take all of the cables off, wire brush the***** out of every connection. If a cable looks bad, deep-six it and get a new one. Might be a good idea anyway to start fresh and rule things out. Also clean the grounds, one for sure at the fire wall and look for one down by the voltage regulator. Biggest help, buy a repro Ford shop manual for the car.

 

The battery cables have been disconnected and the charger cables are a little warm...indicating a charge is taking place. I temporarily put cables back on with charger, and the pump started working and the dome light got brighter. I put a little more distilled water in the three filler holes because it is bubbling pretty well. I plan on recharging for a few more hours. So far it is looking like all you men were correct....weak and discharged battery. What gets me is that I specifically asked the Autozone manager if the battery was fully charged and he****ured me it was ready to go. If it turns out all this worry was simply because he was wrong..... well, at least I do not have to rewire the car from something foolish I did. I also did not know that 6 volt cables are really thick. These aren't bad, but if they should be bigger, I will find them and get them. Until further notice about the "problem", I again want to thank you guys for heading me in what appears the right direction. By the way, my 15 was told that you men had the answer, not me.

 

A slower rate of recharge is safer, and better for a new battery AND water added. IMO.

Overboiling is not good for it.

If you think the cables look small, If you crank the starter a bit, and they stay cool, they are Ok. But also check the temps on the bolted connections, especially at the solenoid and at the starter; if they got warm instead, that is a poor connection

Most batteries have a date code sticker on one side. Like B/5, which would be Feb 2015. I try to get the freshest one on the rack

 

Blanco slow down your charging....the "water" shouldn't be bubbling much. A slow lower amp charge is best maybe over night. Keep checking the sides of the battery for being hot. Warm ok. Ammeter on your charger should go down to 1-2 amps when the battery is fully charged. If you get a volt meter it should read 7.5 vdc when charging...good luck

 

Batteries do need to outgas as they approach a full charge. It's both necessary and desirable.

But, it needs to be moderate outgassing. The battery charger itself, and charging rate, needs to be appropriately sized for the battery being charged. One of the reasons for this is so that it reaches a full charge in a reasonable amount of time.

Too quickly, too much current, and it will warp plates. Too slow and it will take days to charge and boil out the electrolyte. A new battery can take several hours to reach 100% and should be allowed to "percolate" a while as well. Monitor both charge rate and amp draw to determine when charging is complete. Specific gravity readings probably even better.

 

Unfortunately, this is a large Schumachuer (sp) with only one 6 volt setting. My nice trickle charger is only for 12 volt. I will have to turn it off in a little while. The sides of the battery are slightly warm. The cables are obviously warm, but not hot. Incidentally, I cannot find 2/0 battery cable with top terminals anywhere. It seems you have to order the terminals and cable lengths and get them made. There are plenty of 4 gauge ready made cables, but I want the big boys.

 

Go to a shop that makes cables for welding or a business that sells supplies for restorations.

Charlie Stephens

 

Battery would not crank car, and lights seemed a little too dim. Put charger back on and she at least cranked but poorly. Battery date is January 2016. It should have charged by now. Taking it back tomorrow. Man, I'm tired.

 

The Shumacher will work fine, but you MUST keep an eye on the voltage. In cold weather not so much, but in warm weather they will go off the rails eventually. A slight overvoltage is actually good, but. A good rule of thumb is to only apply about 10 or 20 percent of a batteries Ah rating (not cca); this translates to around 10 amps for most auto start batteries. Quick, heavy charges will bring a battery up fast but slow thorough charging brings the plates up to full capacity.

 

Ask them to run a load test on it when you take it back.

Charlie Stephens

 

Will do what all of you have suggested. I want to get this girl up and running again without worries that she will stall out on me and leave me on the side of the road. She is a beautiful car, but was not looked after for six years or so. Not a show car, but it is a show-off car. The boy is a HUGE Back To The Future fan, so 1955 really shakes his tree. Can you imagine a 15 year old in love with the fifties? Even likes a lot of the fifties songs.....but loves ALL of the cars!

 

You don't say where you are located, witness protection program ?
At any rate, in my area of N.C., Tractor Supply has the 1/0 cables. Farm and Fleet is another outlet.
Forget finding those GOOD 6 volt cables at auto part stores.

 

Along with all the above, do yourself a favor and go buy some Copperkote at the local electrical supply house. I ran my 55 bird on 6v for several years. It's kind of messy, like anti size, but copper. Every time you clean a connection, use it. Especially the grounds. Doesn't take much to stop 6v's. Wire brush, no paint, Copperkote and tighten down. 60 years later, the rust and corrosion make even bolted metal connections suspect.

 

Holy cow! Stop the presses! I just talked with the guys at Autozone and they told me that the old battery I dropped off was a 12 volt! How can that be? The positive post was the ground on the frame, and the negative post went to the solenoid and they had worked well? Is my car converted to a 12 volt? Can a 12 volt system still be a positive ground? Man alive...my head is swirling....any information from out there? Good grief!

 

A 6 or 12 volt battery can be either positive or negative ground. What did they give you, 6 or 12? It was common to convert the '55 to 12 volts as Ford went to that shortly thereafter. The main reason to use negative ground with 12 volts is that you can use it with modern electronics but it would work with positive ground. Check your light bulbs, are they 6 or 12 volts?

Charlie Stephens

 

You need to know the difference, as to what a 6 volt battery looks like (3 caps) compared to a 12 volt battery (6 caps).

 

Agreed: if you can't look at a battery and tell what the voltage is by just counting the openings in the top you had best go back to remedial. Each cell or cap means 2 volts in a car battery.

On the positive ground with 12 V up thought the mid 60's at least there were still several 12 volt vehicles on the road that ran positive ground so that isn't a big issue that when they put 12 V in they went to pos ground. I would imagine that they polarized the generator for Pos ground when they installed it.

 

Then there is always the possibility that you dropped off a 6 volt and there person at the counter didn't know the difference and gave you the nearest sized 12 volt they had in stock. Now they may just be trying to cover their tail. Check the light bulbs and let us know.

Charlie Stephens

 

Sad scenario if neither the buyer or the seller would recognize the difference between the 6 v and 12 v batteries.

 

I bought a 6 volt thinking that was the proper battery

 

O.K., thanks for all the****istance, including the insults. This old car is a 12 volt with a positive ground. Yes, the battery should have been a dead give away to start with...but like I said at the beginning, I am less than a novice at this and it shows. Have a nice bunch of days.....!!! Thanks.