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Positive Ground to Negative Ground?

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Ohiobugeye

Ohiobugeye

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I need to pick some brains. I will be re wireing my 59 Bugeye this winter. Are there any advantages or disadvantages in converting the system to negative ground? I have the Midget Sprite restoration manual and it looks relatively simple to make the change. The book covers the electrical motor in the heater fan, the generator and an electronic tach. It doesn't mention the starter motor. Also, will a standard negative ground am/fm radio work if It's wired backwards?
 
Yes on the radio wired backwards. As long as you isulate the antenna too. And stick it in a plastic box so it doesn't hit any metal. I smoked many an eight track tape decks in my 67 + grd Sprite back in 72 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Converting to - grd is a 10 minute job on a Bugeye, 30 minutes if you have to rewire the tach on later Sprites.
coil wires get flipped, generater gets arched (repolarized)
and maybe the heater needs it's wires flipped, not always.
The starter stays as it is.
So convert and stick a CD player (or 8 track) in the dash.
 
Thanks for the input. Reading how to do it in a book is one thing, but I wanted to get some info from someone who has done it.What got me thinking about it was the guy in the shop who's rebuilding my generator ask me if I wanted it repolorized as negative. As long as I'm doing a full rewire on the car it got me to thinking what my advantages would be. Looks like I'll go with the negative ground. Thanks Much.
 
Most LBC parts distributors used to have available metallized foil stickers that said "This vehicle equipped with negative earth" or similar. It probably is a good idea to place those near the battery and any other points people may tap into the electricals on cars that were originally positive ground.
 
Good advise, I'll logo the firewall and when I have the tach apart i'll also put a decal on it indicating negative ground. Thanks, Don
 
I converted my 59 to neg. grnd a few years ago. Pretty simple and staighforward. Also switched to an alternator set-up at the same time. I would recommend the switch. For one thing, if you ever need a jump you will now be compatible with everything else on the road without fear of frying everything! Tach, coil and fuel guage were the two things that needed to be switched over, everything else pretty much stays the same.
 
I switched over last year. I wanted the extra juice for some Halogens up front. Mine is a 64 Sprite. Tach was difficult -- I ended up going with a new one from Summit only because I didn't have any more time to find the sizes on ebay and couldn't understand the re-wiring info on tach conversions.

Upgraded to an Alt as well -- bracket took a while. Use hardened bolts (I learned the hard way). Alt was a little tricky. Email me at gzeck@email.com and I will find the receipt from Advance Auto ( ~ $75).

Heater didn't matter. I also changed the dist. to petronix ignition (while I'm at it became a costly proposition) so that was taken care of for me.

Still working out some issues. More due to time constraints than anything else. Despite being a bit long winded - it's actually not that difficult past the tach. and if you go with the alt -- it gives you "more for less" (if your not a purist).

BTW -- where are you located ? I'm in Avon Lake (suburb of Cleveland).
 
Something like this?
attch


mark
 
I did mine a year ago and have been happy. I read somewhere that positive ground speeds up galvanic corrosion and the neg ground stalls this and even reverses it. Just $.02
 
Mark,
I don't think that was exactly what he had in mind although possibly more appropriate...lol
JC
 
Funny Mark!!! But... as JC said, not quite what is in the catalog. The labels I've seen are a metalic mylar looking thing with black text that says simply, "IMPORTANT, This vehicle wired negative earth"
 
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