I have a 1950 Chevy deluxe,it has no motor or transmission at this time. I recently purchased a 1965 327 CI that I plan on rebuilding with a few performance mods. My question is...what do I need to do to change this car from 6 volt to 12 volt? I already have a 2 wire alternator and using a HEI ignition. Any and all help is appreciated.
I would suggest pulling out all the wires, assuming they are all the original wires. Then getting a wire kit and rewiring the whole car.
The lights need to be 12v as well as gauge illumination, you’ll need voltage resistors for the blower fan and the radio if you get the radio working. and you may want to shunt the ammeter as it will still work but it’ll peg and over current very easily I would agree to rewire. The old wiring may be ok if left alone but if it’s been touched it’s probably due for replacement
If the wiring is ok leave it alone!!! I would suggest inspecting and only replacing what is necessary, spice, solder, shrink, wrap. The wiring in 6 volt is heavier gauge then a 12 v car. Stay away from wiring kits!! My dad and I have wired a few cars from scratch it is not as difficult as people make it out to be, we have gotten involved in cars that people have bought a kits for. Evan the high dollar kits are only a starting point, I have found anytime someone has bought a kit it is missing so much and has to be modified to work it would have been cheaper and easier to wire it from scratch particularly if it has been partiality installed!
Bill, I see you are new, joined on my birthday, actually. Welcome. To be clear, are you saying you intend installing the 327 in the 1950? Changing to 12V is pretty simple. Lets assume the wiring is not too terrible and can be used. 6V wire is larger than 12V, so more than adequate. ALL bulbs will have to be replaced. I just left the radio in my Buick unplugged. Transformers are available. Blower motors will work on 12V just run faster. I use a volt meter instead of the Amp [ charging ] meter. Ben
Yes,I am in fact wanting to use the 327 in my 50. Still trying to figure out the best way to install it. ie.motor mounts, removing all that needs to go from the engine compartment,and things like that..I am in the learning stage right now. I seem to overthink things when it's my vehicle. I'm also helping my pops restore a 54 olds 88 with the original 324 rocket motor.
Wiring can be tricky. I think they were still using the cloth covered, rubber insulated wire in 1950. The insulation usually breaks or crumbles when you move the wires. You might be able to get away with leaving this type wire alone, but it usually works out that you have to mess with everything under the dash when you do an engine swap, so you'll disturb the wiring there. And at the lights, the sockets will be corroded from age, and you'll end up having to mess with the wiring there. Everything under the hood will be in worse condition than what is hidden away in the rest of the car, so you'll likely have to redo all that, too. If you chose to get a wiring kit, you can either get stock reproduction wiring, which will be wrong for the new engine, alternator, distributor, and ignition switch you'll install. The light wiring will mostly work. These are expensive! as they have the original type of wire, and terminals. Or you can get a "universal" type wiring kit, which will include lots of extra stuff, and none of the connections on the ends (if it has any) will fit the original stuff on the car, so you'll end up modifying or making things fit. One advantage of these kits is that they actually do have a fuse panel, so you can have a bit of protection for the wires. Not so with the original reproduction type wiring. These harnesses vary widely in price, but you usually don't get what you pay for, and often you don't get what you do pay for. Buyer beware. There are some places like American Autowire, that make reproduction harnesses that also include a fuse panel, and wiring that matches engine swaps. Just what you need. They're really expensive, and of course they don't make one for your particular car, I guess it's not popular enough. So, maybe you do need to make your own harness, but that requires learning about how it all works, and how to make sure it's safe, and reliable. Having experience would be great, but if you haven't been doing this for years, it can be quite intimidating.
I do in fact have some automotive wiring experience.I guess I will have to do it myself. I'm pretty confident that I can figure everything out. Just take it one component at a time..and google/ you tube the rest..lol
Are you going to be running power steering or ac? If not speedway's Hurst style front mount and frame brackets work great
Is the stock drive line still in place? You need to remove the torque tube if it's still under the car and replace it with an open drive. Rewiring these cars is really not that hard. You should pick up a shop manual that will have the original wiring diagram that will allow you to replace what needs to be replaced with not a lot of trouble. There are tranny cross members and motor mounts available to get the GM V8 and transmission into the stock chassis.
I don't claim to be an expert when it comes to putting a small block Chevy where a 6 cylinder once was so I will leave that to other people but Changing the car from 6 volts to 12 volts is fairly straightforward and for the most part all cars of the same. I am going to write this so somebody in the future that might be doing a 6 to 12 volt conversion and their automobile can understand the basics. The wiring in a 6 volt system is literally twice the gauge (gauge means thickness) then a 12 volt wire would be necessary because every time you double the voltage (6 to 12 volt) the wire size only needs to be half as thick. As long as the wiring is in good shape it will easily take 12 volts because 12 volts requires half the amperage/wattage (wattage is the same thing as amps) to do the same job. So to give an example since I'm not real good at explaining things if a starter takes 200 amps at 6 volts it's only going to take 100 amps at 12 volts, a wire that's designed to take 200 amps will easily take the 100 amps that a 12 volt system would require. Supposing you were going to leave the original engine in the car You DO NOT have to change the starter, a 6 volt starter will generally speaking will work just fine on 12 volts there are a few exceptions but they are few and far between, your typical 6V starter is totally happy on 12 volts just don't crank on it so long that the starter gets scorching hot, I have never seen anybody crank on a starter long enough to overheat it but supposedly a 6 volt starter will kill itself on 12 volts if it's constantly cranked on. I personally have resurrected dead cars using 12 volts that were designed with 6 volt starters and I have really cranked on the starters without cooking them but again my experience might be the exception not the rule although theoretically a 6 volt starter should be set up with thicker wires also. Moving on You will obviously need either to convert The vehicle's generator to a 12 volt generator or a 12 volt alternator, If you run a 12 volt alternator the easiest way to do it is find a one-wire alternator If you don't use a one wire alternator you need to make sure you get The s and the r and the B terminal all going to the right directions. If you're going to turn it into a 12 volt generated vehicle you need to get the correct voltage regulator to go with that generator and that also goes for some early alternators. Myself I would highly recommend a GM one wire alternator if you can find the space for it because just as the name implies it literally just has one wire that goes to the battery and it's self excites It's super easy and gets rid of a lot of extra wiring. You will need to run a voltage reducer to the heater/blower motor, You were also need a voltage reducer to run the wipers if they are electric along with any other electric motors that they vehicle may have such a seat motors or window motors They all should probably should be reduced to 6 volts to make sure they don't burn out or over heat because most of them aren't easily replaceable with modern equivalents or rebuildable. Could you imagine having an a early power seat and frying the electric motors just seems like a headache that's easily preventable with some $20 parts. Outside of that you will need to change all the light bulbs most of the light bulbs will have a 12 volt direct replacement part number So it is fairly straightforward. For example a 7-inch 6 volt headlight the part number is normally 6006 It's 12 volt equivalent is a 6014 and it's halogen equivalent in 12 volts is an h6024. Pretty much all bulbs have a 12 volt replacement part number Now how to figure out The part number interchange I could not tell you, I happen to have a tackle box full of lights that are 12 volts and I just kind of match up what looks correct That being said there is a possibility you put in too high of wattage and you can melt plastic lenses ask me how I know lol. You will also need a 12 volt ignition coil. The ignition coil In most six volt cars is usually positive ground, You will need to change the wires so that negative goes to the points instead of positive assuming you were going to make the car 12 volt negative ground like a normal modern car. Obviously you will also need a 12 volt battery to replace the 6 volt battery other than that it is pretty straightforward realistically you could easily do it in a Saturday afternoon. Speedway sells the voltage reducers I think they are about 20 bucks a piece for the electric motors here is the link https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Electric-12-Volt-to-6-Volt-Reducer-for-Motors,15824.html For your gauges you are also going to need a voltage reducer, your amp meter or voltmeter should not need this (amp and voltmeters don't care about voltage They will just read it accordingly) but a 6 volt tach for example will need it as will a dash clock or any other gauge That isn't an amp or voltmeter. A speedometer on a classic car you should be able to just change the light bulbs and it should work just fine because it is a mechanical drive. I have never personally used these but supposedly these are what you need for the gauges https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Runtz-12-Volt-to-6-Volt-Voltage-Reducer,2374.html. Anyways I hope that helped I'm not an expert automotive electrician by any means and occasionally I forget stuff because I don't do this type of swamp everyday I'm getting ready to do it again to my 1953 Kaiser Manhattan but that being said the last time I did it was probably 15 years ago I was in my late twenties. Also I should mention outside of the 6 volt starter being a little weak when it is on 6 volts in my opinion there are a lot of LED light options for 6 volts nowadays so you could have bright six volt headlights and bright 6 volt tail lights You will just have to do your research I've never personally used them to tell you how effective they are but I am curious, I would rather just use 12 volts that way it's easy to jumpstart and nobody could screw it up and more importantly so I could get parts at the local parts store if I have to.
The Jalopy Journal
