Re: 12 volt conversion

Posted by Peter Packard On 2008/7/6 19:03:51

G.day all, I am running a 12 volt battery in my 38 120. I am using a coil ballast resistor in series with the feed to the instruments to drop the voltage to the instruments to around 8 volts. Everything seems to be working ok for tha last few years. I have also included another ballast resistor in series with my 6V radio feed, as the valve radios do not like the extra few volts at all.
The main difficulty with a 6v tap into a 12 volt battery is avoiding overcharging the non-tapped 6V portion of the battery. As mentioned before you could also go for two 6v batteries so long as your charging system is set up for it. I would suggest that your best bet is to improve the starting on your 6V system. The easiest way to do this is to get a higher torque starter from a late model Packard 51 to 54 engine. The 1949 starters were between 8 and 16 ft/lbs torque whereas the 51 to 53 starters were between 16 and 25 ft/lbs torque. Those late model starters really fling those early engines around. Best Regards Peter Toet