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| The starter won't care. The ammeter and charging system will care. If its an alternator it will be very intolerant of reversed voltage. Reversed voltage will essentially short the battery and melt parts like diodes on the alternator. If its generator, either polarity will work so long as you flash the generator (jump the B to A terminals on the regulator for a couple seconds with the battery connected) before you try to start it. Even if you get the polarity right, a generator that has set for a decade needs to be flashed to make sure it build voltage and in the correct polarity. Flashing magnetizes the field poles to leave some residual to make the generator start building voltage when its running. Wrong polarity from the generator and destroy the cutout section of the voltage regulator.
You can test the alternator polarity (almost always negative ground, but not absolutely) with an ohmmeter that you know the polarity. One polarity of the ohmmeter the output of the alternator will show open and the other polarity it will show a couple silicon diode drops, so you want to use a range that shows diodes. A simpler test takes a battery and a test light. Start by connecting one battery post to ground then hook the test light between the other battery post and the other battery cable. With all load switches off, the test light will glow full brilliance if the battery polarity is backwards but won't light at all if the battery polarity is correct.
If you were to wait until you got an official shop manual and repaired the cobbled wiring you might save much work and damaged parts.
Gerald J. | |
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Positive or negative ground? How to tell?
