DadRchmnd Posted April 6, 2021 Author Report Posted April 6, 2021 Found an oddity yesterday. When I had the 12volt battery hooked up for my ill advised test, the radio worked. I now have a correct 6 volt battery hooked up and the radio doesn't work. It is still a 6 volt system, but the radio doesn't seem to work right on it. None of the gauges appear to be working in with either voltage, but that isn't a big surprise. A little background, I'm a software engineer for John Deere, working on all the in cab software for all vehicles. So, the electrical system is really the least of my worries in terms of not being able to figure it out, and I have a friend who is an electronics guru and specializes in older electronics so I'm going to pull the radio and take it to him to test the components and will probably determine the cause then, but found it really odd that the supposed 6 Volt radio worked better with 12 volts. Anyone ever come across something like this? Also, the engine turns over, and it sounds like its trying to fire but not really sparking. Going to pull the distributor and order a rebuild kit for it to try that and see if it fires that way. Quote
greg g Posted April 6, 2021 Report Posted April 6, 2021 The radio actually runs on high voltage AC electricity supplied by passing low voltage dc through the vibrator, the thing that makes the deep humming sound when it is switched on. So it makes sense that it might work on 12 v. 6v requires higher amps than 12 v to makes things work. If you have a situation where resistance is high due to corrosion, lose terminals or bad grounds, the vibrator might not be getting sufficient current to work at six volts. I believe the vibrator is voltage dumb on the input side. Also the old radios have a power source to the speaker. Again resistance to the speaker might be preventing it from working. The only gauge that is electrical I the file gauge and most of them work on comparitive resistance and are also voltage dumb Quote
greg g Posted April 6, 2021 Report Posted April 6, 2021 On a recent post on another forum the almost constant request for information on how to convert to 12 volts was finally difinatively answered. Put in the 12 volt battery, turn everything on. Replace everything that doesn't work any more with 12v stuff. 2 Quote
Sniper Posted April 6, 2021 Report Posted April 6, 2021 29 minutes ago, greg g said: On a recent post on another forum the almost constant request for information on how to convert to 12 volts was finally difinatively answered. Put in the 12 volt battery, turn everything on. Replace everything that doesn't work any more with 12v stuff. Lol, that's one way to know for sure Quote
DadRchmnd Posted April 7, 2021 Author Report Posted April 7, 2021 22 hours ago, greg g said: On a recent post on another forum the almost constant request for information on how to convert to 12 volts was finally difinatively answered. Put in the 12 volt battery, turn everything on. Replace everything that doesn't work any more with 12v stuff. We call that problem resolution engineering at work. What doesn't work? Ok, lets fix that, everything else is good. Quote
DadRchmnd Posted April 7, 2021 Author Report Posted April 7, 2021 22 hours ago, greg g said: The radio actually runs on high voltage AC electricity supplied by passing low voltage dc through the vibrator, the thing that makes the deep humming sound when it is switched on. So it makes sense that it might work on 12 v. 6v requires higher amps than 12 v to makes things work. If you have a situation where resistance is high due to corrosion, lose terminals or bad grounds, the vibrator might not be getting sufficient current to work at six volts. I believe the vibrator is voltage dumb on the input side. Also the old radios have a power source to the speaker. Again resistance to the speaker might be preventing it from working. The only gauge that is electrical I the file gauge and most of them work on comparitive resistance and are also voltage dumb Thank you for this! A lot of the connections are rusted, I'm going to end up replacing all the electrical lines anyway. Because of it I'm thinking I'm going to do the 12v conversion. My buddy found a 318 engine that is missing the intake but turns freely on one of his pick and pull treks for nearly free, so I might be going that route anyway. So many choices to make gets overwhelming at times. 1 Quote
chrysler1941 Posted April 8, 2021 Report Posted April 8, 2021 When you hooked up the 6volt battery, was it positive to ground? Quote
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