My luck, the last owner had these side terminal cables laying around, drilled and tapped the posts of a 6volt battery …confounding everybody.
I’ve seen wierder things.
Yosemite
Back in the “good old days”, batteries had exposed links to interconnect the cells. A 6 volt battery had 3 cells and a 12 volt battery had 6 cells. It was possible to tap into the links connecting the cells on a 12 volt battery and take the power from three of the cells thus giving you 6 volts. I watched a mechanic use his 6 volt timing light on a 12 volt Buick by connected one clamp to the negative terminal and one clamp to the link between cells 3 and 4. Of course, this isn’t possible with today’s sealed batteries.
I wonder if this may have been rigged up somehow on your Willys truck. Your generator may indeed be putting out 12 volts (actually about 14), but the 12 volt battery was tapped in the middle to provide 6 volts for the ignition. At any rate, once you start the truck, measure the voltage output at the battery terminals. You don’t want to constantly charge a 6 volt battery at 12 volts. However, it is possible to jump a 6 volt system from 12 volts. I used to jump start my 1950 Chevrolet pickup with a 6 volt system from the 12 volt battery in my lawn tractor.
Redneck engineering at it’s finest. At least one mystry solved:)
“Redneck engineering at it’s finest.”
@BustedKnuckles–Thanks for the compliment. I have added to my Redneck title–I am a Redneck Geezer.
If you keep your Willys on a 6 volt system, check to be certain that the previous owner didn’t install 12 volt battery cables. The 6 volt cables have to carry twice the current and are thus thicker.
The owner and I looked,the truck over today and talked more about it.
He remembers that he put in the side terminal cables…just to see if it would crank.
These cables were thin compared to todays 12 volt cables…so I don’t know what he even got these off of at the time. He was told by the seller that the truck itself is still 6 volt.
I guess the suspense was too much for him and he grabbed any old battery and cables he had around to test the starter.
I think I’m safer to presume that it was 6 volts and work from there. I’d like to try firing it up, and if it runs ok, then we know we have a working engine and trans to work from. Then we can move on to deciding to rewire the whole truck for 12 volt.
I’ll have to figure out a temporary gravity feed for fuel.
As soon as I know there are no major issues with the engine and tranny, I’ll be tearing it apart, because it needs a new water pump gasket, and all new radiator and heater hoses, a new oil pan gasket and valve cover gasket.
Thanks for all the input guys. I’ll update this when I have something to add.
Yosemite