Got a 1950 Plymouth. When I got it, the battery was hooked up with negative going to ground. All of the lights work and it turns over, but it won't start. Is this correct? If not, what damage will have been done trying to start it? Thanks
6V positive ground. I hope no damage was done. Turn the battery around and try again. PS don't forget you have left hand threads on the left side wheel nuts. They come off backwards. Sometimes hubs get swapped over the years so it pays to be careful on all the wheels until you are sure what kind of threads they have.
All flathead Chrysler products are positive ground 6V. The V8 went to 12V negative ground in the early 50s.
hmmmmm. i just cleaned up the points and that got spark to the plugs. still negative ground though. I guess I'll go ahead and turn the battery around and try that.
All mopar got 12V negative ground in 1956 exept some late 55 Imperial. Its not a big deal to swich to negativ ground but the gauges wont work properly. And for the wheels. All my cars is marked with a L or a R at the end of the lugs.
your starting issue is your condencer put new points and condencer in pos gos to Neg post on Batt. if you put pos to pos post on Batt your asking for a fire I know !
Which coil post is the ign wire connected to??? Should be to negative, and pos to points terminal. Your starting problem has nothing to due with polarity as they will start and run either way. You likely have spark plug wires that are routed to the wrong plugs. Do a static timing to make sure umber 1 is at tdc on the compression stroke than make sure your wires are in proper firing order alignment as that the rotor for the cylinder is aligned with the cap tower with the correct correct sprak plug wire inserted in the correct tower.
UNLESS you have something else wrong with the wiring in the car, reversing polarity on a 6 volt positive ground Mopar WILL NOT cause a fire. Your fire resulted from some contributing condition. Ray
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