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Member
Posts: 7
| Hello,
I'm a little confused about a car I was looking at. It is a 1955 Belevedere. It has the 260 HyFire V8. What I can't figure out, and the lady who has it has no idea, is if it has a 12 volt conversion or what. It has a 12 volt battery with a negative ground connection. It has a 6 volt generator. It has a 6 volt flasher. I looked at the tail lamps and they are T1156. It starts fine, runs fine. The gas gauge usually stays dead, then every now and then it clicks and pegs to the full position, then back to dead. The temp gauge runs to hot, but the car doesn't overheat. The power seats and windows all work. The head lights and tail, and brake lights all work OK. The turn signals work, except she says the signal indicators on dash stopped a few months ago. It's weird, I don't know if someone did a conversion, or if when she had a shop put a new battery in they just put a 12 volt in clueless and if it should have a 6 volt pos ground put in it.
Anyone have suggestions as to what I should be looking at or doing. I told her not to drive it until I checked some things out. I disconnected the battery in the meantime. Any help would be appreciated. |
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Expert
Posts: 4043
 
Location: Connecticut | I suspect one of two things: Either someone cluelessly put a 12V battery in there, or someone was having trouble starting the car (slow cranking, etc) so they put a 12V batt in there, thinking that twice the juice would get the car going. The reason the gauges don't work is that they are 6V gauges. Starter and generator are also 6V. You can confirm this simply by looking at the metal tags on both. A red tag is 6V, while a green tag is 12V. My advice is to pull the 12V and use a heavy duty 6V battery. Also, be sure to set it up as a positive ground. If the car cranks slowly, then the starting system needs to be gone thru. Also be sure the battery cables are 0 gauge. Too many people put modern 4 gauge battery cables on a 6V car, then wonder why they have problems. Ron |
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Member
Posts: 7
| Thank you -- I will try that. Is Optima a good choice, or ?? |
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Member
Posts: 7
| And just to make sure I don't screw her car up... to set it up as positive ground .... I just switch the hook up so the pos battery term in grounded? |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
  
Location: Perth Australia | I can see a blown regulator (at least) coming here
If you have ran the car with the 12v battery in it and it was connected neg ground, then put the 6v in the same way unless you know how to re polarise the system
The reg might be fried anyway because of the 12v battery part, but really, if you dont understand a generator charging system, best get someone who does or go and study up about it or you can do a lot of expensive damage
It may or may not have a radio in it, if it does, you need to check its voltage and polarity (some were made pos earth, most wernt)
There are step up inverters to turn 6v to 12v (used to be anyway, havnt looked for one for years) to run a radio, but then the car needed to be re polarised to neg ground because it had electronic components
You need to be certain about what is going on with the car BEFORE you mess with it
Car would have originally been 6v pos earth, but after 50 odd years, who knows, but most people in that time would have decided that they wanted a better radio and not a lot of people believe that a car must stay as per factory
Check check chech
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Member
Posts: 7
| OK, I just checked it again. It has a 6 volt starter as well as a the 6 volt generator. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | Thats fine, but does it have a radio?
Look at the battery terminals, the pos one should be bigger (the hole/taper) than the negative
Which cable goes to the block, if its the positive one, then it might have stayed pos earth
Check the polarity of the generator
For the electrical safety of the car, the proper way to do this is to dis connect the generator from the reg (dont matter which end of the wiring you do this)
THEN fit the battery and start the car and let it idle
Get a voltmeter (not sure if a multimeter will work here, I havnt tried) and be mindfull of which is the pos side of the meter and the neg
Put the voltmeter pos lead to the D+ and the neg to the body of the generator while watching the voltmeter needle, if it goes up, then the generator is neg earth, if it goes backwards, its pos earth
If there is no radio or it has a neg earth radio, best leave it neg earth (how I believe it would be now as I said)
The actual polarity wont effect anything on an early girl like that unless someone put something electronic in it, but you must check
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Member
Posts: 7
| Yes it does have a radio.
The neg cable is grounded to the block.
I disconnected the generator from the regulator at the generator. Fit the battery. But now bare with me here, what is the D+ I'm to put the pos lead of the meter on? |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | The stud that the big wire came off that one is D+ (dynamo) then there is DF which is where the small wire came off (dynamo field) then there is D- where the earth wire goes
Although, because this is an early one, it might just be marked D, F, and E or G
Anyway, that should give you an idea
If the negative cable is grounded and it has a radio, then I assume it will have been changed over time, but saying it has a radio is not the end of the story here.
Does it look like an original or period correct radio or is it a later one
If its period correct, then you need to check what polarity and voltage the radio works on (might have to remove it for that)
If its late model (eg plastic everything, tape deck ect), then it will most likely be a 12v neg ground radio, in which case it could have an inverter or it could have been (poorly) coverted to 12V
A 6v starter will generally survive fine in a 12v system, but the charging system is not so forgivng, but I have seen 6v regs screwed up to 13v and eventually burn up themselves and the genny
Anyway, good luck
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Member
Posts: 7
| The radio looks like it's an original. I had to leave her garage for the night, so I will get back at this project tomorrow. Thanks so much for the information. |
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Expert
Posts: 4043
Location: Connecticut | Based on everything you've told us, I would assume that it's a 6V positive ground, which includes all the accessories including the radio. The voltage regulator may be fried if someone put 12V thru it. But the car will still start. So I would get a 6V battery, hook it up and try to start the car. If it starts, then you can check the radio, gauges, etc. to see what works and what doesn't. I really don't see a problem with keeping the regulator connected. Ron |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | The problem with keeping the reg connected Ron is if the generator is negatively polarised and the battery is set up in the positive earth position, when the generator builds up enough voltage to close the contacts to join the battery to the generator it creates (in this case because its 6v) a 12v short circuit across the contacts and destroys the regulator, thats why you must check its polarity first
I have dealt with this exact scenario so many times after someone has stuffed up fitting a battery and I have seen so much electrical damage caused by the same that I really dont think someone thats not sure of what they are doing should even touch it, but touch it they will
Same goes with the radio, if its a pos earth radio and you polarise the car neg earth, it will destroy the radio and vica versa
Because he is stepping into this in the middle and does not know the car or its history, you have to check everything before you start messing with stuff to much, just as you and I cannot see this car, advice on how to fix it must include the checking part
You cant assume that the car is as it was when it rolled off the line, you have to check everything
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 8443
Location: Perth Australia | If followed correctly, a service manual on setting up a generator and regulator would be good, provided (as I said), its un modified with later model electronics
Its nasty to try and help someone out only to cost them a bundle more when it gets stuffed up
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1955 Plymouth 6 or 12 v
