<VV> What *could* be damaged by reversing the battery?

[Bill Elliott]

On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:54:04 -0700, Tony Underwood wrote:

>At 01:41 hours 08/23/2005, LonzoVair at aol.com wrote:
>>Hey guys,
>>I just found a nice Corvair, but the idiot owner has installed the battery
>>positive ground... what could possibly be broken/burnt up?


With British cars (positive ground in some cases anyway) reverse hookups are the normal course of 
events. If left for long the battery (and maybe the fuel gauge) will be dead and if it was an alternator 
instead of a a generator it will likely be dead as well.

I have a Mini that would have originally been positive ground that was imported without a battery, so we 
really had no idea if it had been converted. The fuel pump works either way, the wiper motor was already 
dead, the fuel gauge didn't work... so we hooked it up as a negative ground and just went with it. So far, 
so good.

Good luck!!
Bill