Jumping a 6 volt w/ a 12 volt battery?

First the good news.

I picked up a pretty nice, strong running '53 Ford Crestline Victoria (2 dr. hardtop) on Sat. The car is all original w/ a recently rebuilt flathead.

The bad news (maybe)

The battery in it when I picked up was oldish & the guy told me that all we had to do was jump start it. I'm thinking he's crazy to jump it with a 12 volt battery, but he hooks it up & the car fires right up. Since then I've done it 2 times in order to move it around. Tomorrow I'm picking up a new 6 volt battery, so hopefully this won't be a continuing saga.

What is the wisdom on this subject? I know it works, but does it fry other stuff on the car? It just don't seem right.

-Randy

 

We used to do it all the time, with our farm tractors. They'd always be dead. Just spun faster.

Jay

as long as you ground it the right way!!

 

I started my Kaiser in this morning with 12v indeed it's have to be started with 12v every morning when temperarure is under -5 celsius degrees. But I'm starting it with cables this way: own 6v battery connected and ignition on, then cables from own battery + to 12v's + (positive grounded) and 12v straight to starter terminal, turns over quite nice

 

Yes it's easy. If your 6V batterie is still good enough for a spark, connect the 12V direct to the starterterminal on the starter or the starterside of your solenoid. As long as you don't push the starter button the 12V just powers the starter and the rest is still on 6V. So nothing gets hurt.

 

you are not supposed to leave the 12 volt battery on too long though.... I believe it will fry your regulator...

 

I've jumped mine a million (ok, more like 20) times with 12 volts since that's all there ever is. The only bad thing that's happened so far is that one time the battery on my mom's Maxima shorted out and exploded. It was caused by the jumpstarting, but it wasn't the 6 volt's fault...her 12-year-old car has way more electrical problems than my 48-year-old one has, and mine has lots

Just make sure the polarity matches, so if your 6-volt is positive ground, DON'T switch the cables. It works fine going from a 12-volt neg ground to a 6-volt pos ground. I don't have a clue why, but doing it any other way will overload stuff. Oh, and don't have any accessories on when you jump it either.

About frying the regulator, my regulator never worked right even when it was brand new (I actually had to return the first one to NAPA since it didn't work at all), and it hasn't gotten any worse, but you still don't want the cables on there longer than absolutely necessary. I usually have someone else crank it so I can yank the cables off right away.

 

We do it all the time with tractors also. Plus that was the only way I could start the 54 for a few years before converting.

Be careful about leaving the 12V hooked to the 6V battery. A few times I got distracted and then heard the 6V boiling. Once it blew a cap off; luckily the 6V was under the floorboards and I had only one cable to hook to the 12V which sat on the floor. Getting acid on you would not be fun.

 

Thanks for the replies. As I said, I'm getting a new battery A.S.A.P so hopefully that solves the problem.

If for some reason that doesn't solve it...I'm thinking the generator possibly is bad. I'll probably replace the regulator as well.

Any suggestions or leads on where to look first would be appreciated.

 

I've also "heard tell" that an early ford 12 volt generator ('57-'60) will bolt up to the stock flathead gen. mount. Eventually I'll convert it, but the flattie looks so happy w/ out an alternator on it...

Has anyone done this conversion using a later 12 volt generator?

-R

 

Yes they bolt on, but the easy way is to replace the 6V "coils" with the later 12V. and then get a 12V relay.

you will get a 35amp generator with the right look.

Im a swede and cant remember the right name for the "coil" = it's the copper winding's that is mounted in the housing.

Another way is to buy an 12v VW generator, and since the pulley tension is adjusted with washer's. Its jus a matter to add washer's so the "big" Ford fan belt fits.

 

When I put the Rocky 33 together, I used a 12 volt generator from a 63 Merc and bolted it directly to the 6 volt generator mount on my 59 AB engine. The wide-belt pulley from the old 6 volt generator bolted on--no sweat. U bought a new 1`2 volt rgulator from napa [for a 63 Merc] and wired thet sucker up....worked great and looked totally original..