1953 Chrysler Imperial Crown positive ground electical questions

[Guest CMCG]

Hello,

New to forum and have a 53 imperial crown that is a friend of mine's car and could not find anybody to work on his electircal system. I looked under the hood and was surprised to find to 6 volt batteries hooked together in parallel for 6 volts instead of 12 volt. In everything I have been able to find it should be 12 volt positive ground on the crown, but do not want to fry the wires and connect the batteries in series for 12 volts. If anyone is able to shed some light on the 6/12 volt issue would be greatly appreciated. Here are some of the particulars of the vehicle, is there a way to make sure it is an imperial crown or just the imperial.

1953 Imperial Crown

331 hemi

auto trans w/ safety clutch

power seat

power windows

power steering

kelsey hayes wire wheels

Marks Henry

Edited August 5, 2012 by CMCG
typo (see edit history)

[c49er]

Only the Crown Imperial top of the line model C59, 145" WB limo with 4 wheel disc brakes are 12 volt positive ground. All other models are 6 volt positive ground.

Bob

[Guest CaptainGTX]

Welcome to the forum. I'm not an Imperial expert, but do have a copy of the Standard Catalog of 1950's Chryslers. According to this book, there were two series built, the C58 Custom Imperial and the C59 Crown Imperial. Serial numbers on the two series ran from C58-7765001 to 773869 and from C59-7816001 to 7816162, respectively. There were some differences in what came standard on each model, but I presume you could get most of the Crown features as options on the Custom. One big difference goes to your question as Customs had a 6v system whereas Crowns were 12v. I don't know whether they used a single 12v battery or two 6v in series. If the car is original, a pretty good clue should be how the battery tray(s?) are configured. If this car is indeed a Crown, I'd think you should be safe hooking up a single 12 v battery.

Rich

53 Dodge Coronet convertible

69 Plymouth GTX

[Rusty_OToole]

Inspect the generator tag.should be marked 6v or 12v.

[Guest Robert Soule]

Hello,

New to forum and have a 53 imperial crown that is a friend of mine's car and could not find anybody to work on his electircal system. I looked under the hood and was surprised to find to 6 volt batteries hooked together in parallel for 6 volts instead of 12 volt. In everything I have been able to find it should be 12 volt positive ground on the crown, but do not want to fry the wires and connect the batteries in series for 12 volts. If anyone is able to shed some light on the 6/12 volt issue would be greatly appreciated. Here are some of the particulars of the vehicle, is there a way to make sure it is an imperial crown or just the imperial.

1953 Imperial Crown

331 hemi

auto trans w/ safety clutch

power seat

power windows

power steering

kelsey hayes wire wheels

Marks Henry

Hello Marks, Only Crown Imperial long wheelbase sedans and limousines were 12 volt in this time frame. Standard Imperials were 6 volt positive ground until 1956. Good luck, Robert

[28 Chrysler]

As stated earlier check the tag on the generator or pull off a head light and check to see if it is 6V