VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Electrical - 6 volt ALL CHEVS ARE NEGATIVE GROUND

All Chevrolets are grounded NEGATIVE.
None of them were ever positive grounded.

Note: Some GMC trucks were positive ground, however.

I owned a 51 Jimmy PU for a short time. it was a positive ground but the previous owner had installed the battery incorrectly, took me a little time to figure out what was going on.

Ha ha.... Good story. And that's why I left this thread (announcement) unlocked!

--I didn't mean to laugh at your misfortune, but it sure was educational.

mine is negative ground and its an Australian 34 standard, so there for all you disbelievers the America's and the Falkland islands..

Goose Green lives forever... :aust:

Peter

But then again,your toilet water "grounds" wrong too!!

25 years ago I bought a 50 GMC off a neighbor and was suprised it was positive ground,I was used to that in the Fords and Mopars I had at the time but was the first with a GM product.

When I asked this question in November, last year:
Is the battery in a '32 Chevy negative ground or positive ground?
Is the same true for '29, '30 and '31?
Why is something so basic so hard to learn from period manuals?
MrMack suggested that I was an idiot not to know that Chevrolets are always Negatively grounded. As proof he mentioned that GMCs were positively grounded.
MrMack and Bill are correct, Chevrolets are all negatively grounded.

I'm running a 946C Chevy genny with a positive grnd on a '31
Model-A {you know what} and it works great! What I want to know is can I convert to 12 volt without any problems?
The coil, bulbs & horn will be properly changed or converted.

I still have my '29 Chevy when I want to drive somewhere and when I want to work on something, well, ya'll know the answer to that.

Capt. Harley

My 1941 Chevy 1 1/2T cargo truck is positive ground. but it is a military truck and they were only this way for a very short time.

Does it have a GMC egine? That could make the difference.

my 53 Packard is positive ground

Right......but a Packard is not a Chevrolet!

It seems like most non GM were positive ground until they went to 12 volts.

Hi Gene it is the stock 235 The big voltage regulator on the firewall has 6V positive ground on the tag. They military did switch in 42 to negative ground.

New guy here so bear with me if the title of the thread hasn't quite sunk in just yet.

I've got a '31 5-window coupe that is currently wired positive ground. The ammeter shows discharge when hooked up this way, it turns the starter, and the lights and horn work.

Upon turning the battery around thereby hooking it up negative to ground the ammeter shows charging.

SO my understanding is that it is hooked up correctly as positive ground.

Is that with the car running? If so, since all Chevrolets are negative ground and not positive ground, reverse the wires on the back of the amp meter.

The amp meter should show a slight discharge when the ignition is on and the car is not running. When the car is running down the road the amp meter should show a charge.




Are you talking about the battery or the amp meter? All Chevrolets are negative ground so the battery is hooked up correctly if it is negative ground.

Junkyard Dog,

First, thanks for the quick response.

No, we have not actually started the car and run it yet. It sat for about two years since it last ran, just got a new battery and got the starter to turn over this weekend and now we are going to drain all the old gas. Need to pull the carburetor and clean it up and rebuild the fuel pump before firing it up.

But, it has had a healthy dose of Marvel Oil and everything that should move seems to move just fine so once those tasks are complete we will try running it.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, maybe not. I never even thought of reversing the wires on the amp meter.
^To that point, is there a check list or something of things I ought to be doing and in what order?

Thanks

With your battery hooked up to negative ground as it should be, reverse the wires on the back of the amp meter and it should read correctly.

You asked about a checklist for starting a long-idled old Chevy. Here's one that I posted late last year:

https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/357085/Starting_a_long-idled_old_Chev#Post357085

Hope that helps.

All the Best, Chip

Before I get there, when the car last ran, the battery was hooked up positive to ground (negative to starter) and everything worked just fine.

Now, I know since it last ran that the starter was rebuilt and the battery was just replaced this month.

Will hooking it up negative to ground, as it should be, cause the starter to turn the opposite direction? I would assume so but I don't know.

Given that information, is it possible that the polarity got switched when the starter was rebuilt? How would I know?


I appreciate the help! I don't know much about this stuff but I'm eager to learn!

Thanks Chip this helps immensely, my granddad has gone through most of this stuff but I want to follow up everything myself (as much for the learning as the ensuring everything is right).

The car has been in the family for years and it is now coming to me and I'd like to make use of it!

That's great! Good luck with it and enjoy your car.

All the Best, Chip

Posting on an old thread. My 41 Chevy special deluxe has the ground strap connected to the + terminal on the battery.
This is backwards, right?
I need to swap them and repolarize the regulator, right?
I then need to swap the wires on the back of the ammeter that I swapped a few weeks ago to correct the charging indication.

Anything else? Oh, track down the last person that replaced the battery and slap them.

It’s been this way for a long time. My brother who had the most experience with the car before I got it instructed me that red from a battery charger goes to the ground strap post. This works and supports the reversed diagnosis, right?

Currently no accessories in the car, but I’m planning for a radio...thus my research.

Thanks

Yes, it is backwards. All Chevrolets are negative ground.

Reverse the wires on the ammeter.

The negative side of the coil goes to the points in the distributor.

If the voltage regulator is a positive ground regulator then change it to a negative ground regulator.

Re-polarize the generator.

The starter motor will still turn in the correct direction.

The red cable from the battery charger always goes to the positive post on the battery and the black cable from the battery charger always goes to the negative post on the battery regardless if the vehicle is positive or negative ground.

My 1941 ARMY maintenance manual avoids mentioning polarity till the picture below. Apparently they decided to have all 6 volt vehicles be (bass awkwards) positive ground. Many of the military vehicles were 24 volt to power the two way radios. My father bought several half tons during WWII. The Chevys were Negative ground the Dodges were Positive.

I have a new to me 38 Master 4 door that won’t stay charged. I get one start then new battery zapped. I discovered battery ground goes to starter and battery hot goes to transmission housing. Can I simply run battery hot to starter and battery ground to engine block or other solid ground? Making me crazy and not like my prior 38
Thank you
Michael

Go up 5 post where Scott Crawford ask the same question. Read Junkyard Dogs answer in the next post. Good luck!