Farm Equipment - Battery question

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Battery question

Printed From: Unofficial Allis
Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=99749
Printed Date: 02 Jun 2025 at 2:32pm
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Topic: Battery question

Posted By: OregonGus
Subject: Battery question
Date Posted: 31 Dec 2014 at 9:58pm

I have a 6 volt battery Allis Chalmers WD tractor. The guy at the local NAPA auto part store said I could put in a new 8 volt battery to give the tractor better starting power without having to do any conversions. I was thinking about doing a 12 volt conversion but if I can just use an 8 volt battery, then I could save a little money and not have to do the 12 volt conversion and still get a better starting power.

Does anyone have an opinion about doing this? Would it work?

Thanks for your help.

Replies:

Posted By: Unit3
Date Posted: 31 Dec 2014 at 10:05pm

We did that for years in a WD45, but we finally got tired of messing with burned out lights. Made the switch to 12volt and glad of it.

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2-8070FWA PS/8050PS/7080/7045PS/200/D15-II/2-WD45/WD/3-WC/UC/C

Posted By: OregonGus
Date Posted: 31 Dec 2014 at 10:14pm

Not concerned about the lights, just want a little better cranking power.

Did the 8 volt battery help crank the battery better?

Thanks.

Posted By: Terry/EasternIa
Date Posted: 31 Dec 2014 at 11:45pm

Use good heavy duty cable and six volt will work good. Use 0 size cable, it works good.

Posted By: SteveM C/IL
Date Posted: 31 Dec 2014 at 11:59pm

You have draggy starter,poor connections,too small cables,weak battery or a combination of some or all things mentioned.6V will crank a stock WD just fine.Not too bad with M&W higher compression pistons.
The center bushing on armature worked out on my WD and let fields drag on armature.Worked much better when I got that fixed.

Posted By: Steve in NJ
Date Posted: 01 Jan 2015 at 12:00am

As long as the Starter motor is in excellent shape, and you have the correct size cables, and a good 6V Battery, you shouldn't have any problems cranking the engine over. 8V Batteries are more of a PIA than anything else. You need a charger that will charge an 8V battery in case it gets low vs the 6V/12V charger. Always make sure the Battery has water in it, and is fully charged. A good investment is a Battery tender to keep the Battery active when not in use. This keeps the reserve high in the Battery and makes it ready when you need it. Also increases its life expectancy quite a bit. HTH
Steve@B&B

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39'RC, 43'WC, 48'B, 49'G, 50'WF, 65 Big 10, 67'B-110, 75'716H, 2-620's, & a Motorhead wife

Posted By: SHAMELESS
Date Posted: 01 Jan 2015 at 12:12am

I did it to a Farmall "H" sum 30 years ago, it helped in the winter time, never had any problems but the lights never worked anyways!

Posted By: Gerald J.
Date Posted: 01 Jan 2015 at 12:58am

If the generator has just a cutout, it will charge the 8 volt battery OK. If it has a voltage regulator it won't. Mostly what an 8 volt battery does is give a little more room for neglecting to clean the charging circuit connections, especially the battery posts that in a 6 volt system need to be cleaned twice a year. Every couple years with a 12 volt battery. Battery cables from the wallyworld battery kiosk are small for a small imported car on 12 volts. The current at 6 volts to get the power demands fat cables, like 0 or 00, not 2 or 4 gauge and the low voltage makes voltage drop in the cables and connections more critical hence the need for cleaning and for fat cables.

6 volt lamps on 8 volts have short lives.

They don't make 8 volt system lamps nor 8 volt regulators. The 8 volt battery is kind of like kicking a hungry horse when it would be better to just feed the horse by cleaning the connections.

Gerald J.