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Ground Polarity

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58_BN4

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Folks, I happened upon this forum a few weeks ago, and have spent hours reading post after post. An amazing number of “Oh, now I see!” and “What a great idea!” moments. An incredibly helpful and knowledgeable group of nice people - my Thanks.
Ric in Phoenix, AZ. My project is a 58 100-6 purchased completely dis-assembled, a bare chassis and in dozens and dozens of boxes. Like many of you I’m sure, I thought with a Moss catalog and Haynes manual “How hard can it be?” Really? I have a rather basic, but perplexing question – How does one determine car’s ground polarity? How do I know if my car is positive or negative ground. I now have a re-built engine/trans. and new wiring harness installed, and am not too far from attempting to fire it up – seems a right fine time to determine this fundamental issue.
 
No doubt it would be better to ask this question over in the Healey forum; someone there is bound to know what it was originally. My guess would be positive ground, but that's only a guess as I'm more of a TR guy.

But really, it doesn't matter except for 'correctness'. Unless someone has added solid state electronics (like maybe a suppressor diode to the fuel pump), you can assemble the car either way. The starter, heater, etc don't care; and you should polarize the generator regardless. Swap the connections to the battery, coil and ammeter and hey, presto, it's negative ground.

PS, Welcome to the asylum!
 
Hi There 58 BN4,

"WELCOME" to the Forum. Probably by now; You`ve got Your answer to the Polarity question from the "Healey" folks.

Best Wishes with the project as you really have a Super Nice Car there!!

Russ
 
Welcome to the Forum! :savewave:
 
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