The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay regulator clicking?

Ok so I put an 8 volt battery into my 54 to give it more zipp when starting. I have aquired the zipp but also a click in the regulater. It goes away briefly when i turn on the lights. Would I turn the voltage reg up or down to get rid of this? thanks Ward

An 8 volt battery is a lousy solution to a nonexistent problem. If your starter, battery, cables, and grounds are in good shape there's no need whatsoever for those extra two volts.

To work right, the regulator must be adjusted to 9.5 volts, which burns out points, fries headlight and tail light bulbs, and is rough on the generator and the regulator. The generator voltage has to be high enough to force a charge into the battery. Normal generator operating voltage on a 6 volt system is 7.5 volts, so it can't recharge an 8 volt battery without readjusting the regulator. 8 volt batteries were a lousy idea 50 years ago when I was learning to do auto electricity, and that hasn't changed at all!
Jerry

Lots of folks vent on 8-volt batteries here, but so far you and I Elwardo are the only ones to admit we are using one. I have never seen a post from anyone else running an 8-volt battery who mentions any of that long list of problems. I have said it many times, my next battery will be a 6-volt one again. But all the problems listed in Jerry's post I have not had any personal experience with. I did have to raise the regulator voltage as described above, it isn't quite as high as 9.5, but it is over 9 volts.
But it is certainly true that a good electrical system shouldn't need an 8 volt battery. Oh, and a partial answer to your question might be that the regulator tends to click when it is working. It isn't a gradual sort of regulation, it's on or off, but the cycles go pretty fast, so it clicks.

Karl

It's been my experience, somewhat limited, that an 8v battery was used in a 6v system mainly to cover up trouble that no one wanted to correct properly. Six-volt systems work very well when everything is correct. In fact, 6v batteries usually have better recovery than do 12v batteries. That means they will recover more when discharged than do 12v batteries, because they have more, and thicker plates. All that means is that when you run the battery low in cold weather, it will recover some and let you try a second or third attempt to start the engine. (That used to be the case, anyway- it may not be any more.)

The whole move to 12v systems was mainly because electrical loads were increasing in the mid 1950s, and wire bundles were getting larger, so the solution was a 12v system that required less current for the same work (power), and thus could use smaller wires. The same argument started a few years ago to go to 42-volt systems. That idea fell apart not long ago.

I recommend staying with the 6v system.

Harvester

thanks for your imput folks. elwardo