engine and drivetrain BMW 1602 6-volt system

[BayEmVay]

Greetings_

Could a knowledgeable person tell me when BMW switched from 6v to the 12v system?

I used to own (back in the early '70's) a 1602 into which had been shoehorned a 2 liter engine. The transmission was sometimes overwhelmed, but with a 4.11 rear end, it was a real screamer. Because of the 6v system, however, parts were very hard to get.

Jerry

[Christian]

The last 6V systems in the US were 1967. Parts are still very hard to find. I've had the car for over a year and still cant find the little bulbs that light up the dash. I have no idea what i'm going to do when the "generator" goes. I may have to suck it up and convert.

-Christian

[bmw_jeff]

Mid-67 was the cutoff to 12v from 6v. My 6v is all intact and operational. If your generator dies you can take it to a shop that repairs alternators and starter motors (any decent machine shop) and they can take it apart and rebuild it fairly reasonably as the parts inside are largely generic and available to machine shops from what I've heard. My starter was rebuilt this way a couple years ago. For the 6v bulbs, keep an eye on eBay and also check with sites that sell parts for Vespa scooters, this was the only place I could find the 5w license plate/dome light bulbs. They may have the dash bulb types too. Search Google. Here's a link to one place i found:

http://www.scomo.net/index.php/cPath/14_15