Hi Glenn,

This sbject comes up quite frequently, and for those of us who have spent a lot of time on the site, we know where all the little tidbits are and how to find them. But I haven't been here so long that I have forgotten how difficult navigating this site can be at times.

The link in the quote above will send you to some generic electrical drawings I drew up when I rewired my 51 F1. Most folks find them helpful and they will work on just about everything that had real wiring.

I would suggest that there are TONS of prior discussions about 12 Volt conversions, some of the little quirks that folks have found, and just about everything you should need from an info standpoint.

I would go to the main page for this forum and in the "Search this Forum" box type in "12 Volt Conversion" (be sure to include the quotation marks. Our search function has become almost disfunctional with the last site upgrade but yo ushould be able to find a lot of posts. If yo uhave a problem, come back and I'll see if I can find them and either cut an past the info into a post for you or paste down some links. And if yo uhave any questions, I'll be back to help.

There are a number of growing options for your generator. You should be able to buy a 12 volt generator at any NAPA or Kragen. You will need a matching 12 volt Voltage regulator and will need to polarize the field of the generator after it is installed but before starting the engine. That is a simple procedure where you simply remove the wire from the field terminal of the regulator and momentarily touch it to the battery terminal of the regulator - then reconnect it.

I agree with the folks above though. If you are going to the expense of putting on a new charging system - I'd recommend an alternator instead of a generator, and get an alternator that is of the variety that has an internal regulator - the proverbial "one wire" alternator. This will negate all the wiring over to a regulator and is very reliable. GM alternators are built this way, and there are other restoration shops that carry them - such as LMC, Tuff Stuff, and others.

For your conversion, you will need to change all your iginition parts (coil, condenser, points) you should (but I've heard you dont necessarily have to) change out your starter and starter solenoid. If yo uhave electric wipers you will need a 12 volt wiper switch (but you probably have vacuum wipers) and if yo have a heater, yo uwill need to install a "Vol-ta-drop" to reduce your new 12 volts back down to 6 volts for you r heater - as 12 volt heater motors are not available for the Magic Air heaters (but ARE available for others). If you get a 12 volt heater motor you will need to get a switch matched to the motor. Replace the cigar lighter with a 12 volt unit. All of your light bulbs will need to be replaced. and you will need to put resistors on the backs of your original gauges to get them to work right - the conversion is simple and effective. All the rest of your switches will work fine through the conversion.

I just checked the search function using "12 Volt Conversion" and all the posts showed up. So, just go there and pick the one that seems applicable. If you decide to go with a one wire or GM type alternator, let us know and I have links to installations procedures as well.

Welcome to FTE and have fun!

PS When yo ulook at teh titles of the threads that come up from your search, and some of th etitles seem a little weird like "Fordomatic Transmission" or "56 Wiring Harness" be sure to look at those as well. VERY OFTEN we get off on tangents, or the conversation evolves into wiring situations. Also remember that the wiring in these truck with rare exception is VERY fundamental and almost all th esame between models and years - this is especially true of the Bonus Built Trucks (48-52)