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Yes, I know it's an old subject with many folks contributing lots of ideas and endless possibilities with mostly no one agreeing that there is even a remote chance that installing and running air conditioning on 6 volts will work however about every 6 months or so I perform a search on the subject to see what shows up and ran across one poster on a site who had this to say:

Ken Heart Of Texas March 2005
Posts: 700Platinum Member
EssexAdv wrote:
Jon is close on the 6 volting of the compressor. What Allen did, at my recomendation was to shim the compressor clutch to the minimum clearance. The clutch will trigger on 6 volt on just about any compressor if you do this. Then you need to put a 6 volt blower motor in the air box. This is not hard to do. The draw will be ok if you use a fairly high amp gen.

And it is real fun showing off your 6 volt air conditioner to those who don't believe it is possible As Lew has pointed out... the 6 volt system will provide the necessary volts to complete the task. I am installing a 6 V positive ground high current output altenator. I wanted to retain the positive ground and have the current to operate a air conditioner and 6 volt radiator cooling fan. The altenator provides me with enough current to accomplish these tasks, run the engine and keep the battery charged.

Good Luck.

Ken

I also ran across another post where the writer stated that Old Air Products in Fort Worth, Texas has a 6 volt clutch for use on a Sanden compressor.

I think a few of us would install updated A/C in our cars as long as we could retain and run it entirely and efficiently on our 6 volt systems while maintaining as much of the original engine compartment appearance as possible. Are there others in this position?

That is good information. Believe there was a post some time back about the possibility of a Sanden 6v clutch in the works. Good to hear it may be an accomplished fact although didn't see a mention of it being available on the Old Air site.

Keep us posted if you run across any more info. The particulars on the blower motor and wheel setup would also be a nice thing to file away. The 6v heater motors commonly found are small -- both in shaft and overall size -- compared to the usual AC motors. Wonder if that is what they are using or if they found a larger version to work the bigger CFM AC blowers.

Good question HH. I wonder as well but I would be willing to bet that if an individual with the knowledge and $$$ or an existing company with both were to develop, manufacture and supply the required 6 volt universal components necessary to install 6 volt air conditioning they would gain a fair share of the market even from the most die hard purists especially on those pre-56 cars that offered A/C as an option. Most classic car owners are either capable of or have a capable buddy that can look at photos and fabricate a compressor bracket that will bolt up to practically any engine. I also believe that if anyone with metal working and fabrication experience were to apply that knowledge, he could design a mounting bracket that would allow an efficient compressor to be operated by a single belt as long as the belt was tensioned correctly and not spanning too great of a distance so as to cause belt bounce. Packard proved that a 6 volt A/C system will work over 65 years ago, today we simply have the technology to make it more efficient and dependable if we could just get our hands on the components or make the necessary modifications to the components that we have available to us just as "Ken" suggested in the above post. I plan on looking into the matter further and will post any new developments as they turn up.

As I just got through rebuilding my 6 volt generator system, for my 54 Cavalier, they rate the generator at 45 Amps.

I was thinking the A/C Evap unit should be in the trunk where God intended, thinking the cool air would be more effective coming over the top as opposed to under the dash which is how my Add-On works.

There are two heater motors in the Cavalier and I can run both with the radio and headlights on and I don't dim at a stop light.

If a 6 volt clutch is available for a Sanden compressor I am ready to make that switch now as my 12 volt system for the Add-On is a tad tight on Watts now.

Jim

We have really been through this in detail in several threads, here's the gist:

Alternators:

Powergen makes an alternator that looks like a generator

you can get delco alternators that have been switched to 6v positive ground

a healthy 6v charging system is putting out 7-7.5v and could likely handle it anyway.


Compressors:

A6 gm? don't think it'd work, think it'd draw too much.

Some early systems drove the compressor all the time, and you removed the belt in the winter. It used a hot gas bypass setup instead of the pressure switch we use now, and some other features to eliminate a clutch altogether. Look at old caddy parts, but honestly, they'll be a million dollars if you find them.

sandens actually require 7.5v to close according to specs...we saw someone had a 6v setup here from another site with a stock sanden. Adjust that regulator up to 7-7.5v i it's not there and you should be good to go. It likely already is. This is a clutch, not some crazy precise electrical system like in your computer. 6v lights still work on 3v right? just dimmer? I'd bet a GOOD chunk of money that a stock, healthy 6v pos ground charging system will hold a new quality sanden compressor clutch closed.

Use normal battery, don't try to carry a 12v battery for the compressor, or use an 8v battery or something. Not worth the rigging and cost and aggravation.

Of course, 6v blower motor.

I think that's about it, just have to get around to doing it, which a lot of us talked about but never got to. For one, my car was original enough that i didn't want to rig something up. It's a 23rd series, AC would look more at home in later series.

Dwight Heinmuller has used the stock 12v Sanden on 6v for several years now with his factory trunk AC setup. He mentioned some time back his Sanden rep had given an unofficial blessing. It seems to have been good advice since he has had no issues.

Others have them running on 6v as well but while that fact has been mentioned in those many old threads, doesn't seem to be something most wanting to add AC care to try. An official 6v clutch would go a long way in that respect.

As to the blower, that still seems to be the bigger issue unless they have found a larger motor. Most readily available 6v motors I've found are for heaters using a smaller capacity and diameter wheel & with a 1/4" shaft. Provides a minor inconvenience in mounting and fabricating but not major. Issue might be in finding after the work in mounting that there is an overload or strain on the motor when running the generally larger AC wheel.

Most of the hang on underdash AC units have a wheel on either side of a double shaft motor which provides more of a problem. Mounting the available motors in that setup might be difficult. Expect the added AC would have to use only the single blowers like the Hurricane or Vantage units or else a dual blower trunk unit.

As to the need for a larger generator that seems to be a good question. As several have pointed out, Packard did not change that item on AC cars from the stock 45 amp non AC offering. Apparently didn't have a problem as there are no service bulletins I can recall mentioning any charging issues or changes to make.

talking to a local generator/starter/whathaveyou rebuilder, he said the packards and cadillacs and sometimes buicks had the higher rated generators, that were upgrades or "rpos" for lesser cars like chevy and ford that needed them for this option or that. Not sure how true that is, but knowing how packard went the extra mile on everything else, it sounds like truth.

The person you should be pestering is in the Chicago club. he is a working engineer by the name of Gene Maslana and he has done this. If you email him via the Packards of Chicagoland website (he is also our webmaster) he knows everything on this subject: how much cooling is critical, how little electricity is actually needed, etc.....

He is not retired and has a demanding job, so be considerate in your time frame....

While 6 volt A/C is definitely a subject that has been thourougly discussed "here" within these forum walls, the discussion has been confined to Packard owners only. There are owners of other classic makes that are faced with and discussing solutions just as we are. I've been very interested in hearing and learning about Bill McDermaids system but just as interested in sharing ideas with the Hudson and Studebaker guys. They are faced with the same challenges as us Packard owners so I see it as an opportunity to broaden our knowledge base. I agree with HH in that I believe the biggest challenge is the absence of a 2 or 3 speed dual cage high volume 6 volt blower motor. Bill might have a point in that perhaps a 6 to 12 volt converter could temporarily be used to supply the necessary watts to run a single 12 volt blower motor. There is also a possibility that a 6 volt blower motor such as one of these Fasco's could be variably speed controlled with the installation of a rheostat type switch.

The Fasco site lists some dual shaft 6 volt motors for A/C use. I'm not sure what the shaft diameters are but certainly candidates for consideration.

fasco.com/dcmotor4.asp