LEAKOIL Forum

In an effort to preserve the numbers matching originality and improve the starting ability, I decided to do some routine maintenance and upgrade work to the original 6 volt electrical system rather than convert to 12 volts.

1. Replace the 10 year old NAPA Commercial battery (850 CCA) with an Optima (1000 CCA) battery. 2.Cleaned and polished the wiring terminals at the battery, starting motor and fuse panel with a Dremel tool. 3. Installed a Ford Tractor 6Volt Starter Solenoid in the engine bay. This reduced the wire length between the battery, ignition switch and starting motor from 20 ft. to less than 2 ft. thereby reducing the voltage and current drop. 4. Replaced the starter wire on the ignition switch with manual push button that activates the new solenoid to the starter. So far, the starter turns over and starts the engine quite a bit faster than before. if this continues to work well, I will convert my other two 6 volt busses (66 Westy and Vegas Bus) to this system,

Ken wrote:Replace the 10 year old NAPA Commercial battery (850 CCA) with an Optima (1000 CCA) battery.

Hey Ken: Go get your reading glasses and look at those numbers again.

What do they say?



BTW, CCA is measured at 0F, CA is measured at 32F, don't confuse the two. Because of the voltage difference the Napa battery has the same power as a 325CCA 12v battery, and the Optima would be like a 400 CCA 12v battery. Beware of discount parts stores advertising 600CA batteries cheap, many consumers read this as 600CCA......

I like the unpredictable nature of 6 volts.

Dual Port wrote:

Ken wrote:Replace the 10 year old NAPA Commercial battery (850 CCA) with an Optima (1000 CCA) battery.

Hey Ken: Go get your reading glasses and look at those numbers again.

What do they say?



BTW, CCA is measured at 0F, CA is measured at 32F, don't confuse the two. Because of the voltage difference the Napa battery has the same power as a 325CCA 12v battery, and the Optima would be like a 400 CCA 12v battery. Beware of discount parts stores advertising 600CA batteries cheap, many consumers read this as 600CCA......

Funny you caught that. Carolyn just reminded me this morning that I'm due for an eye exam. .Thanks for your comments. Anyway there is a noticeable difference in the way the starter cranks over. Not as good as 12 volts but much better than before.

Six Volt wrote:I like the unpredictable nature of 6 volts.

I hear you Sean. I guess we're both a couple of die-hards. If you ever get tired of the unpredictability, try it, it really helps.