Packard battery

[Guest]

Does a 1951 Packard have a positive ground?<P>------------------<BR>Bill McCloud

[Rick Hoover]

Yes Sir!

[jac]

Rick, Why did many of the old cars have a positive ground? There must be a reason.<BR>later-jac

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

I've heard that it was supposed to reduce battery corrosion.

[Rick Hoover]

That's correct Hal, it was to eliminate the "grounding" of the battery by corrosion.<P>Rick

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

Did it work? If so, why did they swap to negative ground?

[ply33]

I heard once that the switch to negative ground occurred because of the advent of transistor radios. The story said that at that time there was some limitation on design that required it. Sounded like bunk at the time. And, if I recall correctly, my family had at least one car with a tube radio and 12v system.<P>I am pretty sure the switch to negative ground happened with the switch to 12v. The switch to 12v happened because of the increased demands of starting postwar high compression V8 engines.

[Guest]

I don't think corrosion prevention was the reason for positive ground. Early Dodge's apparently changed between + & -, my '23 is a positive ground and I still have to clean the terminals. I believe that Dodge changed back to a negative ground in the mid '20s when they went to a 6v system. Somewhere in my literature they explain the reason for the change.

[Guest Hal Davis (MODEL A HAL)]

What Rick said sparked a memory of something I'd read a while back. If I understand this correctly, positive ground will not prevent corossion. It's just that when the corossion forms, it forms on the positive post more prominently than the negative. If the positive side is the ground, then corossion will form (relatively) harmlessly on the ground side, not the system side of the battery.

[Rick Hoover]

Hal,<BR>That was the idea or theory of Henry Ford's engineers when when building the first Model A for 1928. As we know the Model T Ford was negative ground and they were looking for a ways to prevent voltage reduction. <P>As to the true reasons why positive ground in automobiles was first used, long before the Model A, I would have to read up on it myself.<P>Rick