On Thursday, December 24, 2015 at 4:15:11 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 03:23:22 -0800 (PST), Uncle Monster
wrote:

On Wednesday, December 23, 2015 at 8:05:02 PM UTC-6, philo wrote:
On 12/23/2015 7:27 PM, wrote:

I worked as an electrician for years, and I have done a lot of tinkering
with electronics, and this has been a real learning experience. In all
my years, I never knew a battery could reverse polarity!!!


Yep

38 years in the business and I never saw anything like that.

Way back a million years ago I put the battery in my 53 Chevy backwards
but the generator just repolarized.

The ammeter read backwards and the gas gauge pegged negatively
but nothing was harmed

You were in the business so you never let batteries go completely dead and knew how to properly maintain them. I have seen a reversed polarity reading on an old battery but it was no more than a volt or two and not enough power to make a spark.

I do have to wonder about the backwards battery in the old car. If it started OK with a reversed polarity on the starter, I wonder about the starter design since it's a DC motor. Wouldn't it tend to spin backwards and the Bendix fail to engage since it's designed to operate in one direction? I know some British cars were positive ground but the Brits are weird anyway and they drive on the wrong side of the road. ?(€¢?€¢)?

[8~{} Uncle Polarized Monster
2 words.
"Series wound."
or
"wound stator"

If those 2 words were "Permanent Magnet" it would be a different
story

That's what I was thinking but I remember something about newer designed starters that use rare earth permanent magnets because it makes the starter so much lighter. I've never tried reverse polarity on a conventional starter.. I imagine I could have back on the farm. We did convert a 6 volt 1949 Ferguson tractor to 12 VDC and installed a Mopar alternator and regulator from one of the old cars we had. I don't recall if the tractor was originally a positive ground but it ran great after we rebuilt the engine and rewired it. I'm trying to remember if we got another starter for it that was designed for 12 volts. It was great on the farm because we could have all kinds of vehicles dismantled and there were no nosy neighbors to call some city department to complain. ヽ(€¢€¿€¢)ノ

[8~{} Uncle Tractor Monster