Another thought about rewiring
Hi Ron
Grant brings up a very good point in rewiring using the same size wire as was used with 6 volt the voltage drop will be far less than if you sized the wire for 12 volt. Another thought when rewiring is the terminals used and how they are attached to the wire. If you compare the spade lugs used on most WWII military vehicles you will find that the lugs are wider and thicker than what you find at the normal hardware store. (I’ll try to take some pictures to illustrate this point today) So it is worth looking around to find the heavier duty lugs and connectors try a commercial electrical supply house. Where practical I would use the ring type connector instead of the spade type, ring gives more contact area and contact area is key to flow of power through system no point in putting a heavy wire if the terminals at the ends have less contact area.
Also you will note that almost universally WWII stuff has the terminals dip soldered on to the wire instead of just crimped. When making up new wiring harness (or repairing old) I try to follow the following steps:
1. Slip the little rubber tube length of the wire (Chevy CMPs used a short ¾ long piece of rubber tubing that just slides over the wire and back over the barrel of the terminal as a strain relief )
2. Strip the end of the wire just enough to go through the barrel of the terminal use the correct size stripping tool so as to not cut or score and of the wire strands.
3. Tin with solder the end of the wire, this can be done with a soldering iron and solder, use just enough solder to hold all the strands together but not so much as to change the size of the wire.
4. Slip the appropriate type and size terminal onto the wire end (if you are using modern terminals with the plastic covers, remove the plastic first) then lightly crimp the barrel of the terminal of the wire just enough to hold it on
5. Apply heat and solder to the barrel of the terminal until solder will flow and run in just enough solder to be sure the barrel is well soldered to the wire. (let cool)
6. Slide the rubber tube down the wire until it has slid over and covered the barrel of the terminal.
The result is terminated wires that look good, are less likely to corrode, brake off at the terminal, and most important will pass the rated current of the wire size without heating up.
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