The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Timing a 6v w/a 12v timing light

need some help,I have done a search on timing a 6 volt with a 12 volt timing light
with no luck.Can someone direct me?

Borrow a 12 volt battery to simply power the light.
Connect the plug wire as normal.
Often this can be done with a lawn mower or golf cart or another vehicle near by and saves removing and reinstalling a 12 volt form something.

Grigg

Thank's, Grigg

I use the spare 12v battery like Grigg suggested but I have also used a fully charged 6v battery and it will fire most of the lights, might just be a little dimmer depending on your light.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

My 12v timing light works just fine on 6 volts. It's just a bit dimmer.

Same here, in daylight I'm better off with a spare 12 volt to run it.

Grigg

If a guy wanted to,could he change the bulb out for a 6 volt bulb ?
Just curious about timing light bulbs.

Thanks,Tim

I don't think it's the bulb Tim, most modern timing lights use a Xenon bulb. They amplifies the battery voltage boosting it up high enough to fire the bulb. That’s why some will fire on 6v and some won’t. Some of the amplifiers are marginal so they won’t fire off a 6v.
I splurged this past summer and bought a Equus 5568 Pro-Timing Light by Innova and it’s bright enough on 6v to see the mark in the day light.
DG

Iguess i will have to read about a xenon bulbs,clueless in Kansas !!

Saved you a little time Tim, this is a clip from Wiki:
“During the 1930s, engineer Harold Edgerton began exploring strobe light technology for high speed photography. This led him to the invention of the xenon flash lamp, in which light is generated by sending a brief electrical current through a tube filled with xenon gas. In 1934, Edgerton was able to generate flashes as brief as one microsecond with this method.”

“The electrodes of the lamp are usually connected to a capacitor, which is charged to a relatively high voltage (generally between 250 and 5000 volts), using a step up transformer and a rectifier. The gas, however, exhibits extremely high resistance, and the lamp will not conduct electricity until the gas is ionized. Once ionized, or "triggered", a spark will form between the electrodes, allowing the capacitor to discharge. The sudden surge of electric current quickly heats the gas to a plasma state, where electrical resistance becomes very low.”

DG