Dwell Meter For 6volt

I have been looking for a dwell tach for awhile, new ones I'm told don't work on 6 volt? I've looked for them at flee markets swap meets etc. I final found some in fact I found 4 which I bought all of them, is there a way to tell if they will work on 6 volts or anything I should do to them I'm a big dumby about dwell meters and other things. Thanks

 

Darn that's funny, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

 

The meter needs 12V to power its onboard electronics. Any 12V ground-refernced suply should work.

If the dwell meter has battery clips (ie no internal batteries), you should be able to put a 6V lantern battery in series with the jeep battery and run it that way. Or use a 12V lantern battery instead of the Jeep battery. You can even power it from AA or AAA batteries if you want, using a battery holder. Your dwell meter should have three leads - battery (plus, minus) and tach. Connect the tach lead to the point side of the coil, and the battery clips to your batteries. You will also need to connect the meter's battery ground (-) to the Jeep's ground (-), either the body or the battery (-).

The inductive dwell meter also has an inductive clamp that goes on the #1 spark plug cable. Show us what cables come out of each of these meters.

12V AA battery holder.
2Pcs Black Plastic Battery Holder Case w Wire for 8 x AA 12V Batteries DT

 

Yep. I just power the meter from a 12-volt battery. Works on the 24V military that way, too.

 

Thanks to all, on two have three connectors one has internal battery. Here's pics of the connections. Thanks again!

 

Glad I could help! Maybe I can comment further -

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This one should have internal batteries, since it only has two leads and they are the right size to clip to the coil/tach signal. Black to ground and red to the tach signal. Possible it could use the phantom current from the tach lead for power.

View attachment 34246
I don't know what's going on here, since the two clips are clearly battery clips.

View attachment 34248
This one is conventional, with the two power leads and a tach lead. You can use this with 6V if you connect a 12V battery between the black and red clips, and also connect the black clip to ground.

View attachment 34247
This looks like it has two leads and an inductive clamp. Maybe this is the one with the batteries, and it connects to ground, tach and clamps to the spark plug wire.

Realize that most of the old electronics stuff you buy is broken, so don't be surprised if none of these work. "Untested" or "As Is" typically means broken.

 

Here's the one I have -
Amazon.com: Actron CP7605 Dwell/Tachometer/Voltmeter Analyzer: Automotive

It only has two leads, and I'm pretty sure it has no batteries. So it must use phantom current for power (ie the constant 12V that is behind the charge/discharge cycle of the coil primary). Pretty sure this one is not going to work with 6V under any circumstances.

 

Sweet, thanks for the insight, no worries if they don't work only cost me a buck apiece, I've had good luck with old tools. Once I fix my fuel leak I'll try them out. Thanks again.