Battery in wrong

D

DelPercio

Junior Member
Hello just received my car yesterday and wanted to charge the battery. When I hooked up the charger I had a bad polarity. I took off the negative strap and the battery's negative terminal is connected and the frame. The positive is hooked to the solid wire that goes to the car. The car starts and the lights work. Shouldn't the positive terminal be hooked to the ground strap.
 
If it has been converted to negative ground, then leave it. Quick way is to look at the polarity of the coil.
 
Hello,

if the battery poles were actually reversed, then the starter would run backwards. The generator could not charge. I had read that also A Models were built, which had "minus" at the body / frame (grounding current).
 
Werner said:
Hello,

if the battery poles were actually reversed, then the starter would run backwards. The generator could not charge.
Click to expand...

That is incorrect. The starter does not care about the polarity. My starter ran happily at 12v negative ground for many years. The generator would work fine if you 'polarize' for negative ground.
 
Back to the original question. If it's a six volt battery the positive terminal should be connected to ground. If it's 12 volts the negative terminal should be connected to ground.
 
My grandad had something similar on his 1959 Olds. Battery swap, and the neighbor came over and made himself right at home, and took charge of changing the battery. Car ran fine, except the radio would not work. A little investigation, and it was noticed the battery was hooked up backwards. Swapped it around, and the radio worked.
 
The battery is 6 volt 3 cells. When I hooked the smart charger it showed 6.3 volts went into a deep charge for an hour then shut down and said the battery was bad. Is it possible to charge in reverse. I was thinking of turning the battery around with a pos. Th ground turning the lights on to drain it dead then recharging.
 
Whether positive or negative ground, you still want to connect a charger so that positive is to the positive terminal on the battery. Usually a charger has positive on a red connector. Hopefully, your smart charger has a 6-volt setting. Some don't. If do you revert back to a positive ground system, you will need to re-polarize the generator. Assuming you have a generator and not an alternator. If your prior owner has converted it to a negative ground alternator, then you'd better leave the polarity where it is. The starter motor will run the correct direction whether it is positive or negative ground. It seemingly defies logic, but that is the way it is. If it were mine, I would just leave it regardless.
 
Disconnected the ground and it did the same thing. Charged and then said the battery was bad. I'll look to see if the red coil wire goes to the distributor.
 
Your getting a bunch of junk info. #1 DETERMINE THE POLARITY THE CAR IS SET UP FOR. From factory the A was positive ground, however lots of people convert them to negative ground. #2 Determine if the battery is charged correct polarity. Yes, it is possible to charge a battery backwards. Use a voltmeter to check, black to - post, red to + post. Do NOT connect battery to car until you know which polarity the car is set up to operate, and if your battery is charged correctly.
#3 does the car have the original generator and cutout? Keep in mind that a regulator can look like a cutout but will NOT put up with reverse polarity. If its the original cutout it will likely be fine.
#4 a good first indicator that the car has been converted to neg ground, is when you honk the horn, the ammeter jogs to the left. Also the coil will have a + sign (or red dot) by one terminal. If it is a negative ground car, that side of the coil should go to battery, positive ground car, the + side of coil will go to points in distributor.
#5 now that you've got the battery charged properly and the polarity of the car determined, now the generator needs to be polarized. Take a piece of wire and momentarily touch both sides of the cutout.
#5 start the car and verify that you get positive charge on ammeter.
 
If the car has been converted then things would have been changed at that time. HE DOES not say that he installed the battery, it is the way it came.
 
DD931 said:
Back to the original question. If it's a six volt battery the positive terminal should be connected to ground. If it's 12 volts the negative terminal should be connected to ground.
Click to expand...
What you say is generally correct but they can be wired the other way and work fine.

Charlie Stephens
 
My roadster came with the battery installed backwards, with negative to ground. It ran fine. I installed a LED tail ight and it wouldn't work. That is when I discovered it was in backwards and turned it around.
 
You've just received a lot of info, some good some not.

You say the engine starts and the lights work. That will happen no matter how the battery is connected.

What does the ammeter show ? Turn the lights on, meter should show discharge. Start engine and run engine at fast idle, meter should show charge. Lets start there and then we can see where the problem is before we get too crazy here.

If this monster is equipped with a generator with a standard cutout, then its easy to fix. Just let us know what you find.
 
I purchased my Tudor from the Grandson of the previous owner who has passed away. The Grandson installed a new 6vt battery and wired it backwards. When it was delivered we had to "jump" it to get it started. I immediately noticed that the new battery was installed neg. ground. Jumped pos to pos, neg to neg. Got it started. Had to keep revs up to keep it running. I assumed it was running off the generator.
Spoke with the Grandson, rotated the battery and reversed the hook ups and it solved the problem. I did re-polarize the Generator. Chap
 
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