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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Upgrading to a 6V alternator question

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Upgrading to a 6V alternator question -- page: 1 2     jyakel 06-17-2018 @ 10:59 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 83 Joined: Oct 2014 Gentlemen, You all probably know Randy Rundle at the Fifth Avenue Garage in Clay Center, Kansas and his 6V alternator for old Fords and other classic cars. My question to you is this: If I install one of Randy's 6V alternators I have to change from positive ground to negative ground, so how will that affect my dash clock and stock tube radio in my 1950 Ford Custom Fordor? Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated. John carcrazy 06-17-2018 @ 12:37 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1980 Joined: Oct 2009 It won't affect your original tube radio as long as you still have a mechanical vibrator in it. TomO 06-18-2018 @ 7:28 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7386 Joined: Oct 2009 Why don't you just buy a 6 volt POS ground alternator? Or stay with the stock generator, it will keep your battery charged. If you change polarity, remember to change the coil polarity also. Tom kubes40 06-18-2018 @ 8:03 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 3577 Joined: Oct 2009 I'm with you Tom. I get a laugh each time one of these modifications is termed an "upgrade". Mike "Kube" Kubarth supereal 06-19-2018 @ 2:01 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 I agree with my friends Tom and Mike. Positive ground alternators are not hard to find. Most are the "one wire" kind and replace the generator with a new "wishbone" bracket. At our shop we have installed these, and found that some must be revved up considerably to come on. Another complaint is that the charging current is not much, if any, better than generator in good condition. We experimented by making up a smaller diameter pulley for the unit, which did improve it a bit, but requires keeping the belt very tight, which can cause damage to the bushings in water pumps without ball bearings. 42guy 06-19-2018 @ 3:43 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 108 Joined: Oct 2009 I have one from an outfit I think in Chicago area. I forget cause I don't remember what I had for supper yesterday. Anyway they have ads in V8 Times. It starts working at idle and I had one as Super says that have to get about 1500 rpm to kick on. I had for about a year and started acting up. They replaced it or repaired mine, I don't know which. No questions asked. I have one as I use an electric fan some times. GK1918 06-20-2018 @ 2:45 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 137 Joined: Aug 2016 Just a note: I bought a 6vt pos. ground Powermaster. Installed it and It put out less the the generator, with lights on it shows discharge. Here is what I discovered. Most people including myself thought being mounted (bolted) is sufficient grounding. Not so. I found the ground stud is isoslated. So I put a ground wire from that stud to a carbruator nut. Holy smokes with everything on it charges at idle. After starting it goes up to 35-40 amps and quickly trickles back. Next note is you are to buy a Powermaster (look like a generator) you must buy one for your engine another word, one for a 8BA 49 to 53 will NOT fit pre 1949s like 59A and back to 1942. (belts don't line up) sam len47merc 06-20-2018 @ 5:17 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1168 Joined: Oct 2013 Waxing a bit political here, this topic is analogous to the current US of the offended, that being how quick the country is now in this age of Facebook, Twitter, etc., to accept misrepresentations, accusations, falsehoods, snippets, etc., as fact without thinking about what else may be going on, what the rest of the story is, was it taken out of context, separating fact from fiction, etc. The analogy here is it continues to amaze me, as Mike notes, how quickly we are (and I admit I was one earlier) to accept any change to originality as a needed 'upgrade' prior to optimizing the system, component, item in question and preserving/restoring it to original condition prior to determining whether 'upgrades' are needed or not. Personally I cannot think of even one area of the EFV8's I've had experience with to date that, when restored to as-original operating condition, failed to meet and/or exceed the performance needs and expectations. This is especially true of 6V pos ground electrical systems, headlights, etc., as well as cooling systems. Not once have I ever been dissatisfied with any EFV8 system's or component's performance when taking the time to research any issue and investing the time to 'do it right'. My comments are specific to original EFV8's - all bets are off for modifieds. Love 42guy's comment about ultimately using a 6V alternator as an electric fan. Steve slowforty 06-20-2018 @ 5:47 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 1 Joined: Oct 2009 https://store.alternatorparts.com/6voltalternatorconversionrepairkits.aspx This is a site that sells six volt conversion kits for 12 volt alternators They are reasonably priced jyakel 06-28-2018 @ 7:30 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 83 Joined: Oct 2014 Okay, okay, I was looking for advice here, not criticism, so all who gave me their good advice, thank you. All of this is new territory for me and as such the learning curve can be (is) steep. (You can appreciate that because you probably were their too at one time.) I will take your good advice and clean up everything generator/electrical related in my '50 Ford and see if it will work as it did back in the day. John

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