[AT] 12-volt conversion (OT) Why?

[Bill Boyd]

At 03:09 PM 12/6/2008, you wrote:

>But, in their responses to this thread, Dean and Steve both asked the "why"
>question which I've often asked myself.  I am curious ...can those of you
>who have made the 12-volt conversion tell us the reason why you did it?
>
>Thanks -
>Dudley
Mike Sloane said he converted because his tractors wouldn't start in the cold.
I converted for the opposite reason. My tractor wouldn't start hot.
I had a VAC Case that would start cold every time even with a couple 
of pulls with the hand crank.
But if it ever stalled when hot you might as well go sit in the shade 
for a half hour.
I had a Ford Courier parts truck at the time and the alternator from 
it fit perfectly with no cutting of sheet metal.
I did have to make a bracket for it.
I borrowed a dropping resistor from one of my brothers junkers parked 
off in the pasture and mounted it on the valve cover.
That old 6 volt starter would spin that thing so fast it always 
started within seconds.

As a side note , my first car was a '55 Mercury.
It also had a problem starting hot.
I bought it from my cousin who owned a garage.
I being a poor teenager couldn't afford to completely convert it to 12 volts.
So my cousin came up with the idea of a dual voltage system.
We got a air conditioner bracket from the junk yard and mounted a 12 
volt generator on it.
He welded a second pulley on to the crankshaft pulley.
There was plenty of room under the hood for the 12 volt battery.
The solenoid was separate from the starter so we left the coil part 
connected to the 6 volt system.
So the car started on 12 volts and ran on 6 volts.
That solved my hot starting problem.

BillinNETX