Thanks for the 6 Volt cranking tip

I read sometime ago on this group to run the ground wire on the six volt cars directly to the starter. I did that today on my friend Yaron's 1953 Commander. He needed a new battery anyway and he wanted to try another cable. We bought a 1 gauge cable 35 inches long at NAPA and ran it from the positive terminal to the top mounting bolt on the starter. The car is positive ground. The first time he hit the starter switch we knew right away it made a difference. You could hear the difference.The starter cranked much faster than it ever had before according to Yaron. He has owned the car since 1971, so I trust him on this one. The little 232 in this car has been treated to a 4 speed conversion with hurst shifter, heads milled with steel shim gaskets,dual exhaust and a holley 390 CFM 4 barrel carb. A Turner disc brake conversion with finned Hawk rear drum brake conversion. The rear axle ratio is the standard 3.54 #44. Now that the owner is confident that the car will always crank he will be using it a lot more. Thanks for the tip who ever posted it. You made my friend very happy today, sincerely, Joe Flannery

Reply to
jflan63
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Yep, Joe; there's no better advice to be had than #1 -or even #O- cables on a six-violt car, with ground directly to a starter mounting bolt. I've been working on the overdrive of a 1949 Willys Jeepster for a couple days and am amazed at how fast it cranks on six volts...but I noticed it has what appear to be #0 cables on both battery posts! BP

Reply to
bobcaripalma

can't argue with Ohm's Law, what it means to you is for anything 6V you will be drawing twice the current that you would on 12V for the same power output, so you need to size wires accordingly...

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I had 00 cables on my '54 coupe with never a starting problem.

Chip

Reply to
cjdaytonjrnospam

Reply to
Jim Bradley

GROUNDS? Did somebody say grounds? Where's Dave Lester?

Jim (Jeff Rice made me do it)

Reply to
Jim Turner

I don't think the "O" or the "OO" cables will be necessary. Maybe If I talk him into changinging over to flat top pistons and cranking the compression way up., to say 10.5:1 or so they may be needed. That won't happen. The little 232 pulls quite nicely with the 4 bbl duals and increase in compression ,thanks to milling the heads .060 and thin shim gaskets. . I also changed the heads to later ones,I don't know what the casting number is. The poor little 232 just doesn't get the respect it deserves. A 232 with later heads is a great little mill. When I was putting the engine together I took some tips from Dick Datson's How to HotRod the Studebaker V-8. There was a lot of info in the book about Ted Harbits Chicken Hawk. Ted was running his 232 with the later model heads so I figured I would do the same for my friend's car. The other advice about the ground cables is good too. I made sure that when I had the engine out of the car and I was changing it over to a 4speed that all the ground connections were clean and tight. The way it cranks no further changes will be needed. A lot of people don't believe that a 6 volt car would make for a good daily driver due to the way they are sometimes hard to get started. I used to be among them. Thanks to the info I received from you guys I don't think that way about 6 volt ignition anymore.

Reply to
jflan63

I worship the grounds you stand on, Jim.

Who dat?

Reply to
Dave_Lester

Great site Dave!, everyone should visit! Lou

Reply to
Larkylou

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