Search the Community

Can I use a 12 volt battery pack to jump start a six volt positive ground vehicle?

I’ve replaced my 6 volt battery in my 1947 Plymouth two years ago and it appears I now need to replace it again. I’ve only had the Plymouth for 4 years, is this common or should I be buying a special 6 volt battery? thanks, chad

I've been looking to replace my incandescent taillights with a brighter LED, but have been unable to locate a 6 volt version- until now. My 1940 Plymouth wagon uses a freestanding taillight that Chrysler recycled from the '37 sedans and coupes, so it is a combination stop/taillight with a Ba15d base (for the technically interested). I know they repo the P15 tail with integral LEDs, but for the rest of us this is great news.The price is reasonable, the guy's name is Chris Bacon and he is in Topanga CA (LA area) and sells these on eBay. I got mine in 3 days. LED Replaces Incandescent 1158 Tail/Stoplight Because the stock taillight also functions as the license plate illumination source, it's important to have a multi-directional bulb. These bulbs have 360 degree illumination pattern and a little optical glass lens that shoots out the foot-candles to the rear. I've tried to show the difference in brightness side by side. I haven't tried it with the brake light, but I assume it will be at least as bright.

I'm at the stage where I needed to install the antenna for my stock Mopar 802 radio into the '40 wagon, but I didn't want to drill holes in the cowl. I considered the "Roadway" running board mounted setup, but even if it worked, I was still stuck listening to local AM stations (mostly news, Spanish language, or religious broadcasts) so I was looking for an alternative. I remember seeing a company in Wisconsin that used your existing AM radio, 6 or 12 volt, negative or positive ground, with or WITHOUT an antenna, that would play your tunes from an mp3 player, iPod, phone, etc., through your stock radio, but I couldn't remember the name. Then I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night with the part of the name: Ready-radio, or something to that effect. Google came up with RediRad so I contacted them at their website and after a little research, ordered the 6 volt, positive ground model, which was $99. The next weekend I installed it but it didn't really work- I could barely hear the music, with lots of static. I played around with the ground, took power directly from the battery, etc, with no luck. I emailed them, explaining the situation. Matt, the owner/tech guy, suggesting a few different causes and offering to call me to discuss. Matt called yesterday, and talked me through the setup steps, and voila! it worked! Turns out my tuner was slightly off (you need to tune in to AM 1000). After that Matt and I talked for about 10 minutes (they are apparently all old car dudes at RediRad) and he asked if they could add a picture of the Plymouth on their website. Matt mentioned that they could have saved some money by offshoring the RediRad components, but decided to support American companies and purchase everything from US suppliers and manufacture them here. It is so refreshing in our supposed "service" economy to work with companies that walk the talk and seem to actually care about their customers. Now I can listen to the Beach Boys like back in the day! Here is their web link: RediRad - Rediscover Your Radio

Anyone have some information on converting my 6V positive ground to a 12V positive ground? It would just make it easier to jump when the occasion arises. Thanks!