The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay dead batery night mare

heress some thing new, came back from vacation, had left the key on and the battery was dead, who ever had the truck before me installed new cables on the battery RED on the neg side going to the frame, and BLACK on the POS side going to the started, so I, me) (my self),,all my fault, hooked the battery charger up backwards, POS lead to the red cable, Neg post.... and now my AMP gauge runs backwards but the truck drives fine and the battery stays charged while driving...........maybe I should drain the battery again and charge it the corect way

I have found the easiest way to charge a positive ground vehicle is to disconnect the cables at the battery and connect the charger as normal. Gives you a good reason to clean the terminals before reconnecting them.

BTW, Chevy did not use positive ground from the late 40s forward. GMC did use positive ground during the AD time frame.

should be a neg ground, NEG side cable goes to the frame

At some point someone has been monkeying around with your battery/ignition system. Stovebolt has a Tech Tip on converting a positive ground system to a negative ground system. It’s relatively easy to do.

I’m going to move this thread over to the Electrical Bay for further discussion.

pulled the battery today, couldnt get it to charge in the truck, got my tender on it because my big charger keep clicking off, but works OK when I hooked it up to my Jeep'

tender seems to be working ok, black lead to NEG post, red to POS post, last i checked after 4 hours were up to 5.58 volts.

I read were some trucks came with POS ground system, but I never seen one.

I did notice last week and checking the timing my Timing light wouldn't work unless I hook the light lead up backwards

As I stated above your year truck did NOT come with positive ground.

Obviously you can charge a discharged battery to the opposite polarity.
My neighbor did it by accident.
To fix the problem, you have to discharge the battery again and recharge in the correct polarity.
Your battery charger and timing light may be reverse polarity protected so they don't self destruct.

FIXED

ran the battery dead, found out mine and the neighbors battery chargers well not do 6 volts, had to use my battery tender. got it charged, started and ran fine, AMP gauge going in the correct direction now, next day battery dead as can be

Installed new battery, drove,........... every thing seems Ok

Charging a battery backwards, discharging it, and recharging properly can do a little permanent damage to the cell groups, but since you caught it quickly, maybe things will be OK. There's a sneaky way to charge a 6V battery with a 12V charger, but it also requires a 12V battery with removable cell covers. It's definitely not a trick for a rookie to attempt, so I'm hesitant to post the procedure. PM me for more information.
Jerry

I threw in a new battery to see if it would work, every things back to normal, Thanks every one