Has anyone had experience converting to a 12 volt system? Would sure like to know what is involved because I am building a speedster and would like to convert to 12 volt battery when I do it. Thanks for any advise you can give
Ran 12v on this 1915 speedster I built years ago. Coils are ok on 12v DC, the points seem to wear spotty after a few hundred miles, had to keep the battery up though. Used the 12v for lights too.
No magnets, no generator, no starter on this '15 speedster, so don't have experience on 12v with 6v starter. Others have Bendix issues with the wallop the 12v gives the 6v starter shaft ring gear and Bendix spring.
I know a guy that has a 26 T and ran the dis with 12 volt but killed his 6 volt starter. I run a 12 battrey in my 1919 T for my coils only, and run the starter, gen and lights off the 6 volt system.
Ahhhh, the never ending battle of 6v vs 12v. My opinion is 6v with good grounds and your fine. I am relativly new at T's, but i have yet seen the need for 12v. I could see the possibility as posted in above with a bare bones speedster, but thats about where i would start to consider it. For a stock style T, i see no good reason for a 12v---other than a 12v battery can be had cheaper---my recent 6v batter cost me $77--but the damage on the starter can cost more than the savings on the battery. Is it worth it to you?
12 volts is good if you need to run a GPS or a CD player or an MP3 player, charge a cell phone, and run a computer and stuff like that. I have been using 12 volts on my electric start car for 14 years and the guy that built it used it for about ten years. Some guys are lucky and some are not. It is sort of like a marriage.
12 volts is nice when you convert to a 12 volt generator with a modern three way regulation system. 12 volt alternators are frowned upon but if you keep the hood closed no one will know.
6 volts works just fine if you keep all of the connections clean. Remember that each connection can and will loose 1/10 of a volt when properly connected and you must consider corrosion which makes it worse. Use 00 wire for cables and six volts is just fine.
I use 12 volts with a small cable and have not yet broken a Bendix Spring.
12 volt batteries are cheap and last a long time when tended properly. You would need to change all of the light bulbs when you change over.
Thanks for the info so far. Frank - it looks like you figured it out with smaller cables. Is there anything else besides bulbs that need to be changed? Is using a distributor a must when you have 12 volts?
Thanks, Fred
You can run coils and timer with 12 volts.
I had a 13 T Touring running on coils and no magneto and put a Saab 12 volt battery under the back seat. It ran just fine. That was the only battery that would go under the seat.
I had a 1906 two cylinder Moline Touring car with two coils and no regenerative system and it ran fine on 12 volts. I changed polarity every once in a while to build up the other side of the points.
Back in the days of dry cell ignition and vibrator coils which went out of practical used before Henry started using them on the Model T, they used six dry cells at one and a half volts so powered the coils with nine volts. Twelve volts is plenty for Model T Coils running on a battery. The Magneto will put out much more at speed but 12 volts is all they had back up until low and high tension magnetos were born.
They used to sell a "hot Shot battery that had three dry cells in it. It had four and a half volts and would let you start the car on the hand crank.
Our big 1913 Cadillac had a self starter that cranked very slow on six volts and the voltage would really drop so you had to turn on the dry cell ignition called B to start the car and as soon as it was running you could flip it over to what they called M and it ran on the six volt storage battery then. It would miss at speed on the hot shot but with both of them turned on it would really pull.