CCKW START HARD?

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:39 am

The culprit is not always the truck, but inexperience in starting a vehicle equipped with Carburetor and Hand Choke.
Some never master the art of 1940s technology truck habits, and resign themselves to listening to all the old wives tales spread by others in the same situation. 12 volt battery and micky mouse fixes are suggested, which are really unnecessary. Not admitting one can't start , drive or fix a truck is sort of a "man thing".
The truck left the factory with 6 Volts, all 562,000 of them. How come?

abn CCKW · Post by **abn CCKW** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:35 am

because they had a simple reliable system that worked , if you listened to what the engine was trying to tell you .

svaasand · Post by **svaasand** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:06 am

Under ideal conditions, both 12V and 6V batteries are able to supply the same amount of Watts (voltage x current) to the starter motor, which is what really counts.

However, to deliver the same amount of Watts, the 6V has to deliver twice the current. This makes the 6V system much more vulnerable to poor cabling, corroded terminals, bad grounding, battery degradation, and low temperature affecting the perfomance of the battery.

That said, I run orignal 6 Volts on all my 4 CCKWs.

-Lars Svaasand, Norway

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:48 am

Lars is a good mix of man and CCKW.

armydriver · Post by **armydriver** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:37 am

Interesting information. Thanks.

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:46 am

Well, of course.

Chris_M · Post by **Chris_M** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:22 am

My CCKW runs at 6 Volts as well. There is no problem as long as you dont forget some rules.

1. I always disconnect the battery from circuit after operation of the vehicle. Otherwise the battery discharges very quickly.

2. My truck is parked outside the whole year. At cold weather I remove the battery and store it at a warm place.

3. In case the battery has discharged too much, (happened to me twice because I forgot to disconnect after use), you can easily start the truck with the help of a modern cars battery. Yes even using a 12V battery does not harm a 6V battery if you connect them ony for starting the engine and then removing the starter cable quickly.

Regards,

Chris

42 chevy · Post by **42 chevy** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:31 am

It was in the low 20's this past morning, and the Diamond T fired right up, now it does have a transfer switch (12 volts to start and runs on 6 volts)
With that said, you need to learn how to start a vehicle with a manual choke, it is all in the TM and operator manual. If you mess up, you can fllod the engine and or drain your battery while trying to start.
If the majority of MV owners read their manuals, alot of these problems would go away..................

John Gott

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:56 am

Hammerhead · Post by **Hammerhead** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:16 am

Do any of you guys use a trickle charger? I believe there was a recent article in Military Vehicle Magazine that was a big proponent of this. What do you guys think? Hammerhead

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:22 am

If it is going to sit several weeks, it would not hurt.
I do not use one on the CCKW, and the COM 4, 6 Volt DELCO battery gives me close to 10 years service. I am on my third one in 24 years.

dr deuce · Post by **dr deuce** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:14 am

You should NEVER put a 6v and 12v in parallel with each other to jump start a CCKW or other vehicle even for a short period of time. You could end up wearing one of the batteries. If you have ever seen a battery go off....

If you need to jump the 6v CCKW, disconnect one of the battery leads so that the 6v battery is out of the system temporarily and only the 12v is connected in the system.

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:54 am

DR D is correct, Sparks can result and batteries that have loads on them manufacture lots of Hydrogen, the differences in potential cause sparks. Eyes, Skin, and clothing are affected.

KEVINABR · Post by **KEVINABR** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:11 pm

hi great advice on battery safety here, what gets me is with all said and done, if you don't do your maintenence regular ie checking points and plug gapping filters etc they don't like starting.

only today after two months standing i primed my cckws carb pulled the choke full out, wound her over and she fired first go

, straight in with the choke and let her warm up on the hand throttle.
all trucks have different characteristics and you soon get to know each one.

Kees51 · Post by **Kees51** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:02 pm

My CCKW still runs on 6v. I have a special trickle charger that I connect to the battery every time I park the truck. I have a big switch that disconnects the negative circuit, I always turn it to disconnect the battery before I connect the trickle charger. The charger is an intelligent one that maintains the battery in full condition but does not overcharge it. That way the battery is always on maximum capacity next time I start the truck. But I still need to be careful to set the choke etc. just right when I start, if I don't get it to run after a few tries the battery gets exhausted.

I have started it a few times on 12v when the 6v battery was low and no other one was available. One cable of the 12v battery connected to the plus of the 6v one and someone standing by with a cable connected to the negative. When the starter motor turns over laborously, we touch the other cable quickly to ground and the engine starts at once. Of course you immediately let go when you hear the engine. This has worked great for the few times I needed it.

This makes me want to change my CCKW to a 12 volt system, it has a lot more energy to start the engine that way.

Chris_M · Post by **Chris_M** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:03 am

As I said in my previous posting. You can connect a 12v battery with a 6v one without harm. You only need to be quick.

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:13 am

Boom!!!!

Which is faster?
I grew up in a car dealership 40s-60s where dozens of cars sat for weeks and batteries discharged. 6 Volt to 6 Volt could spark, then came the mid 50s and 12 Volt to 6 Volt did spark. In the Army We boosted M-Series in some units that only had booster cables with alligator clips, blown batteries in our 5 Ton dumps were not unheard of. The GI Slave Cable was Safe as switches were off when hook up was madw, and if not, thespark was far away from the location of the battery.

dr deuce · Post by **dr deuce** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:16 pm

I keep a battery outside my barn here in Pembroke. It is 12v and I was using it to start the PE-95 genset. It was hardwired to the unit. I had my starter/charger connected to it via clamps and was switching it between charging and start mode between stopping to make adjustments and fixes.

One time, one of the clamps sparked a little when I was starting in start mode, so I stopped the start and bent over to adjust the clamp.

I never saw the battery go off, I only heard it! I was one foot directly above it when it went. It was a newer plastic top battery and one cable prevented the top from leaving the scene. I had my glasses on (good thing). I took a bath in acid! My right thumb was gouged from the top going by (I still have scars on it today). I kept my eyes closed and told my wifes son who was nearby to take me back to the house as I was going to keep my eyes closed. At the house, I went into the shower fully clothed and rinsed off, especially my face and eyes. Luckly, nothing bad happened to my eyes and the only lasting injury are the scars from the battery top on my right thumb....

************* BE CAREFUL ************

Degsy · Post by **Degsy** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:53 pm

I too have had an 'acid facial' but was fortunate that all the bits of the battery case missed me, they put dents in steel sheets on a shed 20 yards away. As the Doc says you can't be too careful.

joel gopan · Post by **joel gopan** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:45 pm

If one never gets hurt doing this it is luck, the warnings have been around since the beginning of lead acid batteries.
"Yes my dear Watson"