The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 12V to blower

I was wondering if the blower motor on my 53 will handle 12v for an extended time with a 12v rheostat. This is the only thing that I've not changed over, and I don't know why I'm thinking about this when it's in the upper 90's today, but I'd like to know.

Spencer

Go ahead and try it. If it works great if it doesn't, Brothers sells a 12V motor for $50.00 What may happen is the rheostat will go out which will cause the motor to quit. You can keep dropping a new one in until you give up and replace the motor.

http://www.brotherstrucks.com/products.asp?dept=515

if you like standing next to the airport runway it'll be fine until it quits in a cloud of smoke ... but ya might as well hook it to 12v and see for yourself volts don't count with rheostats, it's amps, and that 6V motor will howl

however you can get voltage reducers at any of the vendors, specifically to run high draw 6V things on 12V like the heater fan

Bill

Bill, if volts don't count with rheostats what is that rheostat doing on my 2N Ford tractor that has been swapped from 6V to 12V? Also why when the rheostat goes out the motor quits and won't start? I imagine the distributor/coil is still 6V. Is that why a rheostat is needed?

What IS a rheostat???

a rheostat is a variable resistance, works the same on 6 or 12V, and your tractor may have had one used to adjust the voltage to something [coil, points?], when it fries, the circuit is open so whatever doesn't get any power - if you just put a jumper across that rheostat you'll prolly be able to locate what it feeds from the smoke

and the heater controls aren't really rheostats, they're variable dropping resistors, with taps, usually 2 or 3 position items, a rheostat is "infinitely" variable from none to maximum, like the volume control on yer radio

the heater blower is about the highest stock amp draw in these old trucks, and those heater "rheostats" wouldn't cut the voltage enuff to keep a 6V motor from over-revving .... note how much better/faster a 6V starter works on 12V - for the seconds that it's needed ... as Spencer said, the heater fan is needed for extended periods

Bill

Ok, I remembered something like that but there's so much that's been jumbled in since then, I wasn't sure.

Reminds me the time my 48 plymouth's battery went dead and i used a 24 volt from an army reserve troop carrier truck to start it. I don't think that motor ever turned over faster at 60 mph. Sure started quick.