Not sure if this should go in the more modern tech forum or here with the old stuff, so here goes:

My 1941 Dodge D19 Luxury liner convertible has mechanical top raising/lower motors. I just got the motors running again and need a source for wiring information.

The motors spin clockwise nice a smooth, but no matter how I hook up the power source, I can't seem to make them go backwards. There are three color banded wires going into each motor. Red, Black, and Green. Should be positive red, negative black, and ground green, right? How would a guy hook these up to make them spin backwards too? The has to go both up and down after all.

Any information you can offer for leads to experts or even actually wiring information would be great to read.

Thank you,
Jon

 

Should have included:

When a battery positive is hooked to red, and a battery negative is hooked to black, the motors spin clockwise. No other hook ups spin, not even reversed positive to ground.

Thanks,
Jon

 

I just double checked the hook up results and the motor still spins the same direction when I hook the positive to black and negative to red. Hook ups involving the green wire don't seem to do anything.

 

Aaah, learning that this was originally a 6v positive ground car I tried the hookups again. Red to ground was scary to accept. Hooked up positive 12v to the green wire and it spins one way. Hooking 12v positive to black spins it the other way. Yeah!

Now I am looking for a convertible top switch and a 12v to 6v high amperage drop down converter so the motors don't spin at a hundred miles an hour and damage the top.

Thanks for your input and for the input of the folks at the Circuits forum.

Jon

 

Hi folks,

I am now looking for the best point to take positive voltage for use in the 1941 Dodge convertible top now running a 12v positive ground system.

Positive wiring comes from the battery, to the starter, then to this little round thing showing in the center of the attached picture with the red and other wires coming in & out of it. Wires pull off of the inlet post on the left, another post on the right, and even one of the little posts in between.

What is this thing? The round plastic piece that these wires all hook up to? It is made by Standard as says the recognizable "S" logo on top of it. What does it do? What happens when I pull power before it or after it?

Where should I draw power from to route to a breaker and the wiring for the power top?

Thank you!
Jon

 

www.aaca.org for help on the older Mopars