VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 6 volt battery recommendations

Hello all,Happy New Year! Before I put the 210 away for the winter,I noticed that the battery in it was 4 years old.I am planning on changing it just before the meet/cruising season starts.The question is,what kind of replacement battery is best to put in there?I thought about a vintage looking Delco,but,is anyone using them?If not what works for you.Also I am planning to have the starter rebuilt as I am not sure when the last time it was looked at.....it cranks a little slow.Opinions please!

Cheers! :)

Unless you plan on playing the judging game, I would settle for the biggest and baddest Group 1 battery. If you have a NAPA store they should have a good battery.. Interstate battery has an excellent choice. Just be sure to purchase the highest CCAs available. They don't get too big.

You may also try a Tractor/Farm Implement store.

Make an attempt to find a HD 4-field starter. At least one with HD fields.

All of this information has been posted previously.

I would recommend you compare spec's before buying.Batteries are sized by group number and there can be a variance in the same group(physical size) on capacity.Check the rating for "cca" cold cranking amps and also "reserve capacity" and don't forget to check your cables.(See a previous posting )

One of my rules: Replace batteries after 5 years and if the battery is OK, use it for a jumper battery. Neighbors want jump starts and if you make a little mistake with on your modern car expensive damage can occur. And, I put the used battery in a plastic boat battery box and just shove it out the door and let them do the jump start. That way I don't make a mistake on their car or be accused of it. Of course that requires you to put the battery on the charger, but not often...BUT, several years ago, I broke my rule and went on a long several day tour after 5 years. We drove over 200 miles to the first stop, went out for dinner and when we finished, the battery was dead, dead. Fortunately my '55 is a stick shift and the restaurant was on a hill. Generators have residual magnetism unlike alternators, so we just rolled down the hill and it started. Fortunately, we were touring with a group and the morning after, we removed the battery, used another member's car, had it tested and bought a new one. The dead one looked new and the shop guy who tested it was surprised that it was 6 years old. Batteries are now one of the cheapest parts and I don't understand why they're not replaced often..A $50 buck battery, 5 years, $10 bucks a year. Good insurance! I replace my 6 volt batteries, too...

I put a 6 volt Optima Red Top battery (maintenance free, non-spillable, vibration resistant, very low self discharge rate) in my 1950 several years ago. Ratings are 980 CA, 800 CCA. I used the stock battery hold down, with the exception that I put 1 inch spacers under the hold down nuts. Never a problem starting! Does not look stock, but sure works well. As M006840 says, be sure your cables are good! If any doubt about the cables or the cable ends, replace them.

The low self discharge rate means that you can store the battery 8 to 12 months unused with out charging it (per the Optima brochure - I use my car more than that.)

You can swap the Optima for a dead Delco battery once you get to the show field if showing with a stock battery is important to you.

Chevy50Jim

I get my 6 volt batteries from a farm store. They are made by Johnson Controls here in Milwaukee and they make about 50 percent of the batteries on the market including Inter-State and NAPA. I buy them when they are on sale for about $30.00 and they are 670 CCA. Like Joe I replace then every 5 or 6 years. Have had some last longer than that.(due to time passing so fast) I never charge them during the winter and they always have enough charge left in Spring to crank over the engine long enough to fill the carburetor with gas.
For slow cranking I would also suggest cleaning the battery cable connections (on both ends) and having the proper sized larger cables. I usually go through the starters when I first get a car -in can save trouble later on the road.

The problem I am running into is that I changed the cables near the end of the season with proper cables from NCA.Are these not good enough?I will most likely have to drop the starter,but,because of a real bad experience with NAPA,I don'r trust them to rebuild it properly.Sending a starter half way across the US is not feasable either in case it gets lost.Maybe if I can find a replacement HD starter that will bolt up correctly,I'll do that.Then I will "attemp"to rebuild the old starter myself.

The proper cables should be almost a big in diameter as the heater hose. I got mine at an out lying fram store. They come in several lengths, the books calls for a 39" cable, the one I bought was 36" and just made it by not having it drop down so far in the center. Don't over look the ground cable. The PO of my car was having starter problems, rebuilt the starter, etc., only to discover that the ground strap was rotted away inside and could not be seen. I replaced the original positive cable even though it was still OK. Would rather not take a chance when I am 700 miles from home.

Just a follow up to this thread.....I went to Car Quest and they had a Group 1 battery in stock with 650 cca.I also changed the Positive cable to a OO gauge cable,what a difference!!! The starter turns much quicker than before!!Is it common practice to use a OO cable on the Negative side of the battery,or will the stock braided "strap" be good enough? I was planning on waiting to change the battery,but,I decided not to wait,it was great to hear the old girl run again!! Thanks to each and every one of you!!

You need a good ground cable, the woven ones will work okay. The ground strap does not have to have the same capacity as the positive cable as it does not have to carry the same load.

Them little electrons have to get back to the battery, so YES the ground cable DOES carry the same load.

Think about it this way:
If all of the little electrons got back to the negative side of the battery, the battery would not run down, you would have perputual motion! you will have the same voltage difference but most of the current will be used in the starter motor to spin the engine and some will be turned into heat. You will need a good ground cable to get the current flowing anyway. A good woven ground strap is plenty, that is if it is new and isn't eaten almost up by corrosion, which most are if they have been on the car very long. Buy TWO good sturdy cables then you won't need to take EE 201. By the way I loved EE 201, DC RC circuits, back in 1956.

Thank you Mr Mack!!!!!!!!!!! In my innocence I failed to produce the reasoning behind my statement.

Hey Mac, current in a series circuit is the same thru all of the circuit, the voltage is divided across the individual resistances. So yes the same current that flows thru the pos cable is flowing thru the neg cable.
The energy loss is at the resistance but from the from the source, i.e., the battery.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

If the engineers at GM/Chevrolet knew the cables would have the same load on them,then why did they choose "strap" type for the negative side??Inquiring minds want to know....anybody?? Seems if they knew basic electrical theory,they would have used the same cable for both,just different lengths,instead of what they ended up with.Just my two cents.

Because the ground cable did not require an insulated coating and it cost LESS.
They did use insulated ground cables on the 12 V cars.

Looks like I have to replace all my cables on my '31, '49, "H" Farmall, Cub Farmall, & "B" John Deere.
Oh well, Looks like interest rates will be cheap.

So why do we need a heavy cable on the starter? when we only have six volts? have you ever checked the amps (current)between the negative cable and the negative post on the battery when the engine is cranking and compared it to the current flowing between the positive battery terminal and the cable going to the starter?

Try it if you can find a good high amperage Amp meter. Maybe for a test you may want to do the test with a heater motor.

Not trying to argue with you Mac, just quoting Ohms laws. If you’re getting less current flow in a return then there has to be another parallel path taking the rest of the load.
If you men why is the pos cable heavier than the neg it could be that it's insulated not only electrically but thermally also, therefore holding in the heat. The ground strap on the other hand is free to dissipate it's heat in to the air. Also if you calculate the area of the flat ground strap it pretty much matches the cross section of the stock positive cable, which I believe was 1 gage. If you have any other published specs on the original cable sizes I’d like to see them so I can add them to my reference library.
I know we are all tending to use bigger starter cables in the belief that bigger cable supplies more current to the starter. And it will, if we are cranking the motor for very long periods of time. But in short bursts the smaller cable is going to conduct about all that the starter will draw. A 1gage wire will conduct as much current as the 4/0 initially, it will just will not dissipate the heat as well as the 4/0. As the cable heats up its resistance goes up increasing the total resistance of the circuit thereby reducing the current flow through out the entire series circuit. So if your cranking the starter for long periods of time, like continuously, yes the 4/0 cable will conduct more current. Also as resistance in the smaller cable increases more of the voltage is dropped across the cable resulting in less voltage at the starter. But then again I’m not going to run my starter motor for long periods of time or continuously. And any literature from Delco-Remy will tell you not to run the starter for more than 30second bursts or you may overheat the starter. I would imagine that the engineers took this into consideration when they calculated the duty cycles of the AD’s electrical system.

Good question, "why did they use grounding strap instead of insulated cable." I've wondered about that myself and the conclusion that I came to was that it was cost. Rubber or plastic insulated wire wasn't as cheap years ago as it is now days. The bean counters were always trying to save a penny and the insulation was only necessary to prevent shorting of the pos lead. In later years the cost came down considerably so they were justified in using the same cable in both locations.
That's just my take on it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Gene,Denny,Mr Mack, thanks for the info,the cost factor seems resonable to me.I was just curious as to whay the cables are different.The 210 is my first "older" car and I enjoy the challenges of ownership so to speak.When I ask a question and then get responses,I try to complete the thread as I did earlier.I was worried that I may have had to crawl under the car and pull the starter,but,all I needed was a new battery!! I wasn't about to wait to spring to get this issue solved,so I took a chance on the battery and cables.The battery was six seasons old anyway.

Speaking about ground straps, my '55 originally had a half sized ground strap. I kept it as an example. It's only 5/8 inches wide and a lot thinner. Judging restored '55s, rarely do I see one. When I replaced the battery the first time, I replaced it with the larger variety..

Joe, The 1959 parts book shows the ground strap for all 1955-56 cars, and Corvettes and trucks through 1959.
Shows a cable (which would be insulated) from 1957 and up.The ground strap for a 1955-56 with out A.C. was only 9 5/8" long. I don't recall them being that short.

Gene, The one I have measures 9 5/8 like you said. My '57 parts book says that also....I have another old one that measures 8 3/4 inches. Don't remember where I got that one...