The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 12 volt conversion Tech Tip

The first paragraph in the 6 volt to 12 volt conversion Tech Tip is about converting 6 volt positive ground to 6 volt negative ground. Only 3 steps involved,
1- Switch leads on the coil
2- Switch leads on the ammeter
3- Switch battery cables
Nothing else required. So here is my question, is it that easy on every 6 volt positive ground vehicle regardless of manufacturer? Or, is the tip only related to GM vehicles.

Re-polarize your generator before starting engine!
Momentarily short the generator output to battery hot (the side not on ground)
If you skip that step the generator will try to charge in the opposite polarity and will draw a massive current and melt something or burn out the generator or regulator or all the above.

Switching the ignition coil is ocd and not required
The ignition system is operating as an AC circuit and the polarity of the leading cycle is not important for the purposes of making a spark.

If you had an original radio
Most would work on either ground
But some early synchronous vibrators required known polarity such as Autoradio model 48 and 490 from GM used in 1947-49 trucks in Canada, that radio needed the vibrator rotated 180 when swapping the ground, there is a warning sticker inside the radio as if you could find it! Lol
USA radios could work on both ground polarities because they all used non-synchronous vibrators from the beginning

In Canada the model 500 and later switched to non-synchronous style like the USA radios.
-s

Probably also ought to add a ballast resistor to ignition circuit!

Ed

that would be for the 6 to 12 conversion, which would need many other things done as well

the list above is only about reversing battery polarity, 6V positive to negative ground or vice versa