Mystery battery ??

R

Rick

Senior Member
Found this battery in a 6 volt system and have no idea what it is. The solenoid is attached to the battery. My only guess is that it is a 12 volt start with 6 volt running but have no idea how it could charge to 12 volt with a 6 volt generator
Anyone know what it is and how it worked. Battery is old and dead.
Thanks, Rick
 

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I've not seen one like that, but I would guess somewhere in the vehicle there is a series parallel switch to change from 6 to 12 on demand. A lot of the old semi trucks were four 6 volt batteries with a series parallel switch to run the starter on 24 volt, and run everything else on 12 volt.
 
Rick said:
Found this battery in a 6 volt system and have no idea what it is. The solenoid is attached to the battery. My only guess is that it is a 12 volt start with 6 volt running but have no idea how it could charge to 12 volt with a 6 volt generator
Anyone know what it is and how it worked. Battery is old and dead.
Thanks, Rick
Click to expand...
519547
 
Also, for fun, some of the WW2 halftracks and such had a big 12 volt battery with a 3rd terminal in the middle for 6 volts. That was the solution for putting a 12 volt radio in a 6 volt truck.
 
Rick said:
Found this battery in a 6 volt system and have no idea what it is. The solenoid is attached to the battery. My only guess is that it is a 12 volt start with 6 volt running but have no idea how it could charge to 12 volt with a 6 volt generator
Anyone know what it is and how it worked. Battery is old and dead.
Thanks, Rick
Click to expand...

From the looks of that, I would think they removed the link between the center two cells and ended up with basically two 6 volt batteries. Should be a series/parallel switch elsewhere, the now two 6 volt batteries charge in parallel and start in series with 12 volts.

Normally there would be two batteries in a series/parallel set-up; but in this case they split the 12 volt battery and used the solenoid on the battery to reconnect the cells when in the series mode and provide the 12 volts.
 
3 caps=6 volts
4 caps=8 volts
6 caps=12 volts

"rich b" has it right; look carefully at the conductors attached to the sides of the solenoid. They are heavy plate and I'd bet they hook up the the taps on the two middle cells.
 
It does look like a 6/12 battery. Those were common in the 50s and 60s for starting hot Olds and Cad engines. JC Whitney sold a lot of them. Starts on 12 and runs on 6.
 
Jim is correct that is a 6/12 battery, start on 12 run on 6, you could leave the 6 volt starter in just don't lean on the starter hard to start it, there is no parallel switch to go with it, I believe you can still buy them, pretty pricey last time I looked.
 
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