[Healeys] Charging Positive Ground Batteries

[Bob Spidell]

Neither. 

First note there are no 'positive ground' batteries, only positive ground cars (e.g. Austin-Healeys). The 'grounding' of the car is determined by which battery terminal is connected to the chassis (aka 'common'). 

If the battery is on the bench, charge like you would any battery: positive (usually red or green) lead from the charger to the positive terminal of the battery, negative (usually black) terminal to the negative terminal of the battery. The battery terminals should be marked '+' and '-,' and the positive terminal is usually larger in diameter than the negative. 

If the battery is in the (positive ground) car, connect the negative lead of the charger to the negative terminal of the battery, and the positive lead of the charger to (preferably) bare metal on the chassis (make sure the cutoff switch is on). You can connect the positive lead from the charger to the positive terminal, but it's generally considered safer to connect to the chassis (in case there's lingering H2 gas and a spark is created making the connection--rare, but it happens). 

bs 

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Bob Spidell - San Jose, CA 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Hartfield" <hartfiel at alumni.princeton.edu> 
To: "AustinHealey List" <healeys at autox.team.net> 
Sent: Thursday, December 9, 2010 11:23:53 AM 
Subject: [Healeys] Charging Positive Ground Batteries 

When charging positive ground batteries, what is the correct connection, red 
to ground, black to positive, or the other way around?? 
Michael 
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