8 volt battery?

[Guest bobostski]

Hi all you MOPAR fans

I have a 55 Dodge with the hemi in it. I talked to the guy at the battery store about 8 volt batteries. He said all you have to do is adjust your voltage reg. so that it will charge the battery but will not affect anything else. Has anybody had experience with 8 volts batteries? I really want to try this because I have a real problem starting the hemi when it is warm. I?ve cleaned all the wire contacts and it still drags when the engine is hot. What do you think about the 8 volts?

[mrpushbutton]

Don't like 'em. The problem is with the starter motor, it's contactor (=solenoid) or the cables. Did Chrysler use a flat braided ground wire like other manufacturers? are you certain someone hasn't replaced the battery cables with 12V (smaller gauge wire)cables? I worked for a prominent collector who owned 140 cars, about 60% of which were 6V. We saw every jakey fix known to man, committed by garage monkeys who had "the fix". We ran every car on 6V, they all cranked over fine, hot or cold.

1) send your started to a competent rebuilder, have them go through it 100%

2) make sure the starter is getting a good case ground, the mating surfaces are clean and conductive, and that the bolts are getting a good bite into the starter flange. Also, with over restored trailer queens (I'm not saying your car is!), occasionally you will find too much pretty paint (yes, on a starter) interupting the current flow.

3). check the gauge (diameter) of your battery cables against a parts book or known survivor car. If it had a braided ground strap, make sure it has one again. They are capable of much greater current carring capacity than a round wire.

4)get an Optima 6V battery. The 6V batteries made today are produced mainly for agriculturial,material handling or industrial equipment, and are marginal on cold cranking amps when compared to a car battery. The replica 6V battries aren't any different, they just look right. The Optima kicks out 850 CCA, and brother, if that doesn't do it, nothing will. Different folks are making plastic shells that go over the top of the Optima, if you want the original look.

[Guest De Soto Frank]

I agree with Mr Pushbutton...

8-volt batteries are a "band-aid".

I drove a 1955 De Soto with the 291 Hemi in the mid-1980s, and never had any starting issues with the six-volt system, hot or cold.

Check out the cables, solenoids, starter motor, etc as suggested above... these will work just fine on six-volts.

Good luck !

Frank McMullen

[oldefar]

HI GUYS!

From my point of view, if the starting motor drags only when the car is hot, it is most likely worn bronze bearings. As we all know, a steel or metal ring (which a bronze bearing actually is) wil expand (causing larger diameter) and cause the ARMATURE in the startignmotor touch the field windings, which again cause the "hotest" short you can get in a car, stealing most all current from the battery not leaving much for igniteing the spark plugs. Run the starter for a while (at full engine operating temprature without starting it). Then quicly jump out of the car and touch the starter body. (don't burn yourself on the exhoust manifold)If the starter is really hot, you can be shure there is a short between the armature and the field windings. INSTALL NEW BRONZE BEARINGS!

And try again before paying for an expensive rebuild of the starter.

Remember also, that if your battery and ground cables are to thin, they will also get hot with high consumption of battery current. Even if the starter is good. Hope this can be of some help. GOOD LUCK! Best Regards, Einar. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

[55PackardGuy]

All good points about what could cause a balky starter when warm.

A couple of other things you might think about:

Exactly what does it do when you hit the key? Does the starter struggle to turn the engine, or does the engine refuse to start even though the starter turns adequately? If the latter case, you could have a vapor lock situation and the engine is starved for fuel.

If the starter just doesn't seem to have any "oomph" it could be one of the many problems suggested, or the engine could be that much harder to turn when warm, which could mean tight bearing tolerances. As oldefar pointed out, bearings expand when hot, and that includes engine bearings--recent rebuild by chance?

Or, you could have a bit too much initial timing advance, causing it to "kick back" against the rotation. Sometimes this only becomes evident when it's warmed up. That's an easy thing to test with a little experimentation.

One other thing is the solenoid--how far is it from a source of heat? A hot solenoid can draw enough extra current to drain power away from the starter. This is more often a problem with a starter-mounted solenoid.

You asked about experience with 8 volts. The only time I saw it work was on an old Allis Chalmers tractor we used around the farm. It really kicked the starter over good! BUT, there were no accessories or lights running off of it. That's what would make me hesitate to try it on a car. I think with a little patience, you can make your 6v work just fine.