Hello to all forum members! My name is Tom, I live in Germany (Bavaria) and I am new here in this forum. The reason for joining this forum is that I have bought a 1950 Dodge Coronet about 2 months ago. Except a repaint it is original, completely rust free and in exceptionally good overall condition for it´s age. I have had several classics, but this is my oldest so far and it forces me to get familiar with some technical Mopar specialities… so here´s my first question: according to the manual and all informations I found so far, these cars have a positive to ground electrical system. But in my car I found the negative battery terminal connected with the ground (engine block and body) and the positive connected to the solenoid…. strange thing is: car starts, runs and everything works just normal, including the original radio (!), which still plays. I have heard, that the radios usually won´t work with changed polarity… is that true? If it is, someone might have intentionally converted the electrical system, but in my opinion it is more likely that someone unknowing had the battery installed the wrong way. Can anyone give me an advice how to proceed? How can I see if any conversion has been made or not? Should I change back to positive to ground or leave it as is?
@Greg: you say the coil should be wired to reflect the way the battery is installed – how can I see that (yes I admit, I am NOT an electrical expert…)?
I will be going through the whole car in the near future and will come back with more questions for sure…