Is my battery hooked up backwards?

[bartenderfloyd]

As I was reinstalling the carb today I decided to put the battery on a charge since I haven't driven her in a few weeks and she's been sitting outside in freezing weather. I thought these cars were positive ground but when I looked at the battery I see the negative hooked directly to the block and positive to the solenoid. The car runs perfectly fine from my experience. The service manual shows it should be hooked up the other way around with the negative going to the solenoid. Should I switch it around or leave well enough alone. What could go wrong?

[Plymouthy Adams]

depends on the polarity your charging system is flashed..

[martybose]

The first thing to check is your ammeter; is it moving the correct direction, ie discharging at idle and charging at higher RPM?  If it is working correctly, then someone knew enough to switch the leads on the gauge to correct it.  Then you should check the leads on the coil, as they should be reversed as well.  The starter doesn't care which way the battery is, as the starter uses windings instead of a permanent magnet, so it turns the same direction regardless.  The stock radio will work fine, unless it has had the vibrator upgraded with a solid state one, since the solid state ones are polarity sensitive.  Heater motors can have the leads swapped to correct rotation.

 

Marty

[Marcel Backs]

leave well enough alone. Could it have been converted to a negative ground by a previous owner? Does ammeter point towards charge when running.  The Plymouth man has a point.

[Oldguy48]

Your car appears to have an alternator rather than a generator.  That probably explains why your electrical system is negative ground.  My thoughts are "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

[greg g]

Might want to check the connections on the coil. Stock would have been IGN switch to neg, low to dist. If it been switched to accomodate the alt it's ok that way also.

[Plymouthy Adams]

for the very low rpm's these engine operate the polarity of the coil is insignificant and the only difference one will see is the changing in opposite contact point of the metal transfer during normal wear...now if you were racing and operating way northward in the upper limits...another discussion entirely

 

as for the heater motor, unless someone has changed it to a permanent magnet...its rotation is also unchanged..

Edited March 7, 2021 by Plymouthy Adams

[Sniper]

14 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

as for the heater motor, unless someone has changed it to a permanent magnet...its rotation is also unchanged..

 Same for the wiper motor, if you have an electrical one.

[DonaldSmith]

If a windshield wiper motor were to go the other way, would the wipers, instead of going back and forth, go forth and back?  Maybe they would park pointing up instead of across?     

[greg g]

So we can keep points forever by swapping terminals every year, thereby flipping the receiving and depositing direction??? Cool!

[greg g]

It might be time to reverse the battery terminals cuz it's gonna get warmer and you will soon be wanting to change your heater over to the cool air direction...