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My heater motor is shot and I have another motor #5047730 that is 6 volt reversible internal ground. Brand new still in the box from Delco Appliance Division. It has 3 wires one white, one red and one black. The red and white wires are connected to the brushes. The black I can't tell. Question is how do I connect this motor so that it will work? The obvious would be to connect the red and white to positive and negative and reverse connections to reverse direction. But nothing works.

Take a look at Chevy of the 40's site and put in the motor part number you have and it might have a instruction manual. You might have to join their site to get them. I got that far and stopped.

Good idea and they have a link to instructions sheet but the information is not available. Tried several ways to get it but no success. Still need some help.

The motor that I have is #5047730 that is 6 volt reversible internal ground. Brand new still in the box from Delco Appliance Division. It has 3 wires. This is a single speed motor. The red wire is connected to one brush on the armature and white wire is connected to the other brush on the armature. The black wire is connected to the coil. Question is how do I connect this motor so that it will work? The obvious would be to connect the red and white to positive and negative and reverse connections to reverse direction. But this by itself does nothing. The key is the black wire and the question becomes where do you connect the black wire which is connected to the coil? I have searched the internet and cannot find any instructions as to how to connect this motor.

Hi Paul,

I do not know the correct way to hook the motor up to your car, but there are two ways you could test to see if the motor works. Since it is listed as "internal ground", and there are wires coming from each brush and one from the coil, I would take it that the other end of the coil is grounded to the motor frame. If this is the case then there are two possible ways of connecting it up:
1) To wire the motor as a "series" motor connect one of the brush wires (say red) to the black coil wire. Then apply power (+) to the other brush wire (white) and to the motor frame (-).
2) To wire the motor as a "shunt" motor, again connect one of the brush wires (red) to the black coil wire, and the other brush wire (white) to the frame. Apply power to each brush wire (+ to red, - to white).
Either of these methods should work, but which one is correct, I do not know. The "series" connection requires that the field coil wire be fairly heavy. This is the same way the starter motors are wired. Hope this helps, but no guarantees.

Happy Motoring,

Dan

Thank you very much Dan. I came to the same conclusion just minutes ago. After many phone calls and internet search. Both options works but which is correct. One of my calls suggested and that I open the old one and see what the connections were and it turns out that is should be a Series DC motor.

I opened the original motor and it was connected in series. Power was connected to one coil, from coil the connection then went to one brush, then through the armature to the other brush, then the connection went to the other coil and finally the connection went from the coil to ground inside the motor.

Again thank you very much.

Cool, glad to hear you got it sorted out.

Happy Motoring,

Dan

I'm a little out of "forum" here...But, I was thinking how my '47 defroster motor only has one wire, yet it's a two speed...I have the original two speed switch and I was thinking that's what that resistor in the back of the switch must be for...Same for the under seat heater...

The resistor cuts the speeds. On later cars the resistor is in the heating duct so the passing air cools the resistor.
In 1958 they placed the resistor on the back of the heater switch again. We used to see tons of 1958 heater switches each winter due to the ill advised change.

Heater resistors can be a real problem in cars and also heavy duty trucks. Working in the truck parts business I have seen many switches and resistors replaced, but have never heard of a switch causing a vehicle to catch on fire, while I know of some that did burn because of a resistor.

You guys are scarring me...I wonder if I should check the resistance, and replace them with a more modern type ceramic resistor...could probably find much better quality ones online...

Never heard of a resistor causing a fire. In general an eletrical ire with a 6 volt system is rare. 12 volt is another story because the wires heat up faster and hotter.

My reference to resistor caused fires was indeed with 12 volt systems and heavy duty trucks. I concur with Gene's opinion regarding the 6 volts.