6V or 12V?

[1962larksedan]

There's a reason (or many reasons) that manufacturers went with 12 volt electrical systems starting 1953 with Buick. I remember reading some years ago about 24V systems were going to appear in cars but that hasn't come to pass.

[PlainBrownR2]

I have two vehicles on 12 volt, and one on 6 volt. The Lark, which is a daily driver has 12 volt and the '55 has 12 volt, and the pickup is on 6 volt, which strangely enough, needs a new battery since the 2-3 year old battery is all but flat, and went flat after sitting for a couple weeks. Both of those cars, mostly the Lark, make it soooo much easier to replace things like lamps in them in an emergency, and it requires a gas station pit stop.

Anyway, I bring up the '55, which has been converted to 12 volt. It was getting all new wiring, and it was getting things like fuel injection, distributorless ignition, new stereo(radio and five speakers), quite a bit more interior lighting, and a wideband O2, so starting with 12 volts was a logical solution. Motors, ammeters, and switches don't care if it's 6 or 12 volts. The '55 is still using it's 6 volt starter motor, it just spins a little faster. I should mention that with the 12 volt system, and the 6 volt starter, coupled to the 12 volt ignition and fuel system, that it requires not much more than turning the key, and away it goes! There's no cranking at all with that vehicle. Anyway, the things that mattered were the radio and speakers, temp and fuel sender, and the lights. The fuel gauge and sender were pulled since I'm using a fuel cell that required a matching gauge and sender, and the ammeter was pulled, as I wasn't getting a reading I liked, so I replaced it with a voltmeter. Both gauges are external to the cluster. The other two gauges, the temp sender, and the oil pressure gauge, were replaced with standard '64 Lark gauges.
The '55 is also not using the small 12 volt cable since the battery is in the trunk. It's using some 0/1 gauge cable from a roll I picked up at Farm and Fleet. Ideally it should be using it anyway, whether it's 6 or 12 volt, since the best solution for electrical wire in most applications is shorter and bigger, so it can handle the amperage draw. With that said, the reasoning for converting to 12 volts due to less copper is long past, since most vehicles these days have far more circuits in them, than they did at the time they converted to 12 volts. That's also why they're considering going to 24 or 36 volts, is because they seem to be reaching a point where they will need to increase the voltage and probably battery size, so they can feed the ever increasing additional circuits in the car, without running the battery down. The offroader guys have been doing this for a few years, because they require voltage to run high output lighting and winch systems(these can be some real energy hogs too), without running the battery down in the middle of nowhere.
I had also read in OCW years ago that they had converted to 12 volts, because 6 volts just didn't have the power to spin the ever increasing higher compression engines over. They just couldn't get the engine spinning fast enough with a 6 volt starter, when they were designing engines with 9 and 10:1 compression ratios.

[SN-60]

To:1962 larksedan & Plain Brown R2,----- Yes, I agree. I believe some folks stubbornly refuse to give up absolute authenticity at the expense of modern convenience, safety, and reliability. Oh well, hopefully they wont need a 'jump' some
cold, dark night. (Or want to see a highway exit sign at night without having to be right on top of it!) Nuff said!