Neg. ground on Cub LoBoy?

[Ernie Wagner]

I am putting a new battery box on my 57 LoBoy and found it to be neg. ground. My regular 51 is positive ground. Shouldn't the LoBoy be positive ground also. I just purchased it a few weeks ago and it has been running fine. Could someone have changed it?Will it harm anything if I put it back with a positive ground. Also how should you charge a positive ground battery? Should it be taken out and charged neg. to neg. and pos. to pos.?Want it correct, would like to find out to put it back together. any help appreciated, Thanks in advance.
Ernie

[Bigdog]

Ernie, it is not uncommon to find systems connected negative ground since a lot of people have experience with only 12 volt alternator systems which are negative ground. So they connect them the way they are used to seeing them. The system will work either way so as long as it's charging, it's no big deal. If you want to change it over to positive ground, as it should be, just connect it that way and re-polarize the generator before starting the tractor. If the previous owner reversed the ammeter along with the battery, you will have to change that back also. The only other thing you might want to change is the coil primary connections (if they were changed). The side of the coil that connects to the distributor lead (points) should be the same as the battery ground. In other words the primary terminal with the + sign is connected to the distributor if you have a positive ground system. The - terminal should be connected if you have a negative ground system.

Now, as far as charging the battery goes. You do not have to remove the battery to charge it regardless of whether it is pos or neg ground.
The battery charger does not care which terminal is ground. Always connect the charger pos to pos, neg to neg on the battery.

Hope this helps and if something doesn't make sense, let me know.

[Matt Kirsch]

Just to reassure Ernie, there's no "wrong" way as long as it works, unless you're a fanatical purist about things like this.

Without some electrical knowledge, I wouldn't just go swapping the battery cables. You could do more harm than good.

On the charging side, as BD says ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS hook pos to pos, and neg to neg. Anything else would be bad, very bad. Haven't seen it myself, but I've heard of batteries exploding from being connected backwards like that.

[Jim Becker]

Back whenever, regulator contacts were made of 2 different materials to reduce burning and transfer. Which material went where was dictated by + or - ground. I suppose makers of cheap regulators today don't bother with those details.

I was only near an exploding battery once, and not that near at the time. Somebody had been trying to crank on an engine. Don't know how much it had cranked, but the battery was evidently quite weak at that point. The guy leaned over the battery to look at something with a lit cigarette . . .

[Patbretagne]

Yes, Very dangerous things batteries, Exploding Gas and flying acid. Watch out.
I've had one explode in the workshop whilst welding, now they stay outside, we don't have very cold winters, with a regular trickle charge.
Pat