12 volt or 6 volt???

[my48]

i recently bought a 48 chevy flatbed this truck used to be on a farm, i have noticed that the lights on this truck seem to be 12 volt, so does the battery, and maybe the cables (seeming that the six volt cables should be heavier??) anyway, everything seems to be 12 volt. the thing thats confusing me is that the coil is clearly stamped 6 volt! i have not yet crawled under this truck yet to check out the starter. i don't want to fry anything or attempt to start the truck until i find out what is going on electronically. can anyone help me out? thank you.

[Guest Dave Wyatt]

Those old 6 volt coils could be used with a resistor and live for a while on 12 volts. Although a 12 volt coil is best.

The 6 volt starter will just turn a little faster on 12 volts and last forever. They had better windings and could take the extra voltage since the amperage would drop some with 12 volts.

If the battery has 6 cells, it is definitely 12 volts. If it has 3 it is 6 and 4 would make it 8. 8 volt tractor batteries used to be common. I could see a farmer dropping in an 8 volt battery with 12V lights and a 6v coil.