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When was 6 volt replace with 12 volt?


Guest straight shooter

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Guest straight shooter

I would like to know when was 6 volt systems replaced with 12 volt and which were the first cars with the change.

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Pontiac and Chevy made the switch in 1955

Volkswagen Beetle made the switch in 1967 for U.S. export, and the deluxe European 1500, while the deluxe 1300, and 1200 "A" ( former standard designation ) kept the 6 volt through August 1968.

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If I remember right, Ford changed to negative ground when they went to 12 volt in 1956. As far as I know, Chevrolet was always negative ground, at least by the early '30's. I don't think any factory ever offered an 8 volt system but many people replaced their 6-volt batteries with aftermarket 8-volt batteries supposed to help the cars start quicker. Every thing else was left the same and apparently the extra 2-volts was not enough to create any problems.

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Switching 6 volt cars to 8 volts was not simple and in many cases caused problems. ONce an 8 volt battery is installed in a 6 volt system, the voltage regulator has to be adjusted so that the generator can charge the 8 volt battery. The generator needs to put out about 9 volts to effectivley charge the 8 volt battery. Now this additional voltage shortens bulb life, may cause the thermal cutout in the headlamp switch to trip, may cause instrument gauges to read incorrectly and may shorten the life of the radio. I am told this was done to make starting easier, but if the battery cables are of the right gauge and the connections are all clean with a healthy battery and starter, then the 6 volt system should give good service. One final complication is how do you charge the 8 volt batttery with a battery charger? To my knowledge, battery chargers only are made to charge 6 or 12 volt batteries.

Back in the day 6 volt systems worked well although they needed to be in good condition for cold weather service while the 12 volt systems are somewhat more forgiving.

Just my 2 cents.

Joe, BCA 33493

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Guest toybox99615

An 8 volt system is actuly 4 cells rather than 3 cells as in a 6 volt battery. Each cell produces 2 volts (actually more than 2 volts.) Charging an 8 volt battery was no problem back in the day. Out of the vehicle: the battery chargers were mostly 110 volt DC, designed to charge lots of cells (i.e. batteries in series) and could be adjusted (add resistance such as a light bulb) to provide a voltage suitable for the number of cells being charged. That might have been be as high as 120 cells per charger in some battery rooms at a local shop.

Adjusting the voltage regulator for in car charging was very common. In fact a Model-A owner was suppose to adjust the generator for driving with the lights off (daytime) and then adjust it for lights on driving at night. Yup the owners manual told you to move the third brush on the generator in or out as you switched the lights on or off.

Today you can buy an 8 volt charge off the shelf as 8 volt systems are very common in golf carts.

We are referring to back-in-the-day when you had to actually service a battery by taking it apart. The services included replacing individual plates and recovering the cells with pitch. Can you imagine heating a battery with a blow torch to soften the pitch?

Also many manufactures actuly used 8 volt lamps in their vehicles to allow for generators that were sometimes know to exceed the normal 6 volt range.

Old car buffs like us need to have a small library of auto electricity book from the early days from 1900 through 1950. You could learn a lot about electrical problems you might be having with the sophisticated systems of the day. One of my 1923 publications cover 20 different systems (manufacturers) used in almost every car from the 20's The electrical knowledge of the day was far greater than most folks would ever imagine. The electric starter said to have been first used in 1912 is one of those little bits of information you find in these old books.

Edited by toybox99615 (see edit history)
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  • 6 months later...
Guest heftylefty

Old car buffs like us need to have a small library of auto electricity book from the early days from 1900 through 1950. You could learn a lot about electrical problems you might be having with the sophisticated systems of the day. One of my 1923 publications cover 20 different systems (manufacturers) used in almost every car from the 20's The electrical knowledge of the day was far greater than most folks would ever imagine. The electric starter said to have been first used in 1912 is one of those little bits of information you find in these old books.

I absolutely agree that old car manuals should be scanned and put up as .pdfs or reprinted by book on demand services as many are very useful. Before a certain date, all books are out of copyright but after that, some were renewed and some weren't. research is needed.

The antique radio and tube audio communities have been especially good about this. There is no automotive site as there is with Pete Milett's site at pmillett.com that has over a hundred old electronics books or the BAMA Boat Anchor Manual Archive.

No car offered 8 volts from the factory, but 8 volt conversions are as old as the hills, and were popular in certain regions where the brighter lights and faster cranking were considered important. Lights burned out faster but people accepted this. 8 volts is very tough on old tube car radios, because the heaters are run much hotter and the vibrator supplies tend to arc their contact points. A few tractors, I think were 8 volts from the factory.

I have thought about the 8 volt problem for car radios. A simple dropping resistor is not the solution.

What I would do is to use a switchmode power supply brick, a well filtered one, to supply B+ to the radio and then replace the 6 volt heater tubes with a 8 volt (TV heater string) cognate if available or put an individual dropping resistor in for each heater, because that way a proper value could be selected to get 6.3V across the heater. None of this would need permanent alteration besides perhaps a couple of small holes in the chassis of the radio where it could not be seen without full dismantling. The vibrator, power transformer and rectifier tube would just be disconnected. It could be put back without much trouble and without any visible alteration unless the radio were removed and dismantled, and if done in a workmanlike fashion, no traces that would be identifiable as such.

8 volt conversion is a good idea on some cars, a bad one on others. It is something people did in the old days a fair bit, and it provides bright headlights and fast cranking. The counterargument is that 1) some cars do fine on 6 volts and 2) if you are going to convert why not just convert to 12 volts all the way. I've never done an 8 volt car and haven't seen more than a couple, but in North Dakota, Wyoming, certain other cold places it was quite common especially by rural dwellers.

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