_or+ ground

[brian.b]

how can i tell if my car is negative ground or positive ground im running it negative ground and everything works,,,the voltmeter ,,the temp guage ,,,but not the oil pressure guage,,,,when i shut off the car the heat guage goesall the way to the hot side is that normal.thanks guys

[joefrazer]

Kaiser and Frazer cars were positive ground. That doesn't mean, however, that yours wasn't changed. Your car is positive ground if the + side of the coil is wired to the distributor (instead of to the wiring harness). Things like light bulbs will work either way.

It's normal for the heat gauge to move to the full hot mark when the engine is shut off on the 47-50 cars.

[brian.b]

what would this do to the factory radio,,,and i put a new coil on the car before i heard of postive ground,,,would the volt hand read negatively if it were still negative ground cause mine reads to the postive side when its running

[Fid]

If the factory radio still has the original type vibrator tube in it, it will not hurt it if the battery is backwards. It may burn up the voltage regulator or generator a little sooner.  The gauges will all read correctly.   I would recommend changing it back to the original positive ground.  A lot people were not aware that some of the old six volt systems were positive ground and just installed the battery with neg ground. It would be best to put it back to positive ground if the car still has the original voltage regulator and generator.  You would need to polarize the regulator again which is not a big deal.

[brian.b]

could i just switch the wires on my coil and try it to see if it still charges.would it hurt anything,,,

[rialto]

Switching the wires on the coil wont affect the generator or the regulator. The car will still run with the coil hooked up backwards but it won't run 100% . Positive ground  + side of coil to distributor.   If your battery is hooked up backwards your ammeter will also read backwards unless that got switched also.