Thread: 12 volt conversion.....

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Originally Posted by Daffy427

....I'll get another 6 Volt battery, series wire the starter and alternator, then run the rest of the car on 6 volts and the alternator can keep both charged...Why wouldn't that work??

There are some minor issues involved with doing that. The two batteries will discharge unevenly and then charge unevenly. It's not a huge deal, you will just need to charge the two 6v batteries individually occasionally to keep them even.

For whatever reason, running two 6v batteries in series and charging with a 12v alternator just doesn't keep them evenly charged, unless they are also discharged evenly. I know this from experience on a friends car where we did a 12v conversion, but ran two 6v's so we could tap off the middle to power vintage spotlights and fog lights that we couldn't get 12v bulbs for. The 6v battery that was running the fogs and spots would get low on voltage and would not come back unless you put a battery charger on it.

No big deal, just a little more routine maintenance.

Personally, I would go ahead and convert the whole car to 12v, including converting the starter to 12v. But that's just me, I like to keep things simple.