The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Converting 54 Chev 1/2 Ton from 6v to 12v

My 54 Chev 1/2 ton is equipped with a factoy installed Hydramatic transmission. It has been a hard starter every since I rebuilt the truck about 8 years ago. I have gone through all the obvious steps to check out the starting system but never found anything that made much of an improvemet. I am considering converting the starting/chagring system to 12 volts. What is involved in making the conversion?

Hey Bob,
Check out the tech tips section, and elsewhere in forums. This is one of the most common subjects on the site. Good Luck.

Jake

Bob,

Be careful. The HydraMatic starter is different from the manual transmission starter. One difference (I think) is that it has an electronic solenoid (not a foot starter). Moreover, I am not sure if the drive teeth are different (this could be a problem when trying to match up with a 12v starter). My trucks/engines/tansmission are in "hibernation" and I am not sure that I can easily get a look at my '54 Hydramatic parts.

Are all your grounding straps in place and are they the appropriate size for 6v?

Tim

Bob, When you say " obvious steps " does that include changing the positive and negative battery cables to size 2/0 cable ?

Go to a heavy truck parts dealer. Most of them can cut cable to length and crimp the proper terminals on that size cable ..

Add to that a new grounding cable from the frame to the engine block and I think your cranking woes will be history..

I have installed those cables on my Hydramatic as well as on a 6 volt GMC owned by another Stovebolter. The starters on both trucks spin like crazy now..

I'll attest to that! Bill put those two-ott cables on my truck and I gotta tell ya, when I hit the starter button, the truck flips over six times and then the starter spins at about 300 RPM. HUGE difference. I don't profess to understand electrons, but I'm told that 6V wiring needs to be twice the guage of 12V wiring to carry the electrons properly. It's all greek to me but I do know my 6V 51 year old GMC spins at the same starter rpm as my 12V '02 GMC now. Before it just went; Ahhhhrungh.....ahhhhhrrrrungh....ahhhhhhrungh.

Now it goes Nyung-nyung-nyung and a 'nyung' is better than a 'ahhhhrungh' any day.

Baddabing baddaboom.

Couldn't have said it better myself..

I just bought an 8volt battery for my 53 i am hoping this will fix my problem maybe yours also.

8 volts is near the danger point when it comes to what the original radio & fuel gauge can take.
The 6 volt system is bullets if everything is in order. Ya gotta have a good battery to start with . I always use a dry cell 6 Volt Optima battery it has twice the CCA of a wet lead acid & about the size of 3 beer cans [ just my own measuring system ] Most slow crank problems in the starter itself [ ru ru ru ru ] in Kook language are caused by bad field coils. Dont forget the 6 volt system is heavily dependent on good grounds. The grounds are as important as the hot connections. I use the braided copper ground cable from the bell housing to the frame & a #1 ground cable from the - battery to the frame along with a smaller braided ground cable from the frame to the firewall. I grind all the frame & firewall ground surfaces to bare metal & slather dielectric grease on them, all grounding terminals are made with stainless steel hardware.

Thanks for the responses to my original question. I have completed the conversion from 6V to 12V and am quite happy with the results. No more starting problems and I have super headlights.

Bob P.