battery in backwards

A new customer brought his 73 convertable because of electrical
problems. He had told me he bought a new battery about 500 miles ago
but its no longer starting. He also said he had no horn or turn
signals. I went to but a charger on the new battery and found it was
hooked up backwards. He said it had to be that way for atleast 500
miles. He has no radio so there was nothing that would have smoked
being hooked up . It was the talk around the shop today, I was saying
no other car would do that (forget MG's).

I wouldn't try this at home.

Mario
Vintage Werks resto.

wrote:
> A new customer brought his 73 convertable because of electrical
> problems. He had told me he bought a new battery about 500 miles ago
> but its no longer starting. He also said he had no horn or turn
> signals. I went to but a charger on the new battery and found it was
> hooked up backwards. He said it had to be that way for atleast 500
> miles. He has no radio so there was nothing that would have smoked
> being hooked up . It was the talk around the shop today, I was saying
> no other car would do that (forget MG's).
>
> I wouldn't try this at home.
>
> Mario
> Vintage Werks resto.
>

Good thing it was an early '73. Late '73 had an alternator
and he wouldn't have been so lucky :-(

You already know this, but be sure and check the Genny polarity
or polarize it.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

How could it have started with the engine backwards? Wouldn't the
starter turn the wrong direction??

How could he have ever started it with the battery backwards? The
starter would have turned the wrong direction! Sounds like he reversed
it while trying to get it to start.

vic20owner wrote:

> How could he have ever started it with the battery backwards? The
> starter would have turned the wrong direction! Sounds like he reversed
> it while trying to get it to start.
>

No, the starter has a wound field so polarity reversal
doesn't change the rotation direction.

If you reverse battery, the field poles (magnetic) reverse
and still "pull" the armature (now reversed too) in the
correct direction.

If it were a permanent magnet motor (like the wiper),
then it would go backwards.

Speedy Jim
http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/

Ahhhh i see. Thanks for that. I didn't realize starters were not
permanent magnet motors.