ot/ positive ground on neighbors car, wtf?? Options

[jsayre914]

My neighbor has a 65 austin healey, sitting in the garage for years, he sees me working on the teener every day. today he comes over and asked if i could help him change the battery in the car because it would not start. (he is older, no real tools) so i ask him if he checked the voltage first, he said no. I had 12.7 volts good. turn the key and the volts drop to 1. so i hook up a jumper box and turn the key, i hear the starter spinning but not enguaging. I am not an expert in any way, so i figure its either the starter or the solinoid.

how do i figure it out??

and the best part is the positive lead on the battery goes to ground and the negative lead goes to the solinoid wich is about 6 inches away from the starter. all my meter readings were done with the red wire touching the body and the negative touching the solinoid.

i cannot figure out how to think backwards. If i want to test the starter, the bolt is negative and the body of it is +

i really want to help the guy out, but i dont know how. If it were me i would already be ordering a starter.

what is the next step??

thanks


p.s. who the @#$#$ thought up the idea of reversing the ground, what benefit could that possibly have??

[underthetire]

My neighbor has a 65 austin healey, sitting in the garage for years, he sees me working on the teener every day. today he comes over and asked if i could help him change the battery in the car because it would not start. (he is older, no real tools) so i ask him if he checked the voltage first, he said no. I had 12.7 volts good. turn the key and the volts drop to 1. so i hook up a jumper box and turn the key, i hear the starter spinning but not enguaging. I am not an expert in any way, so i figure its either the starter or the solinoid.

how do i figure it out??

and the best part is the positive lead on the battery goes to ground and the negative lead goes to the solinoid wich is about 6 inches away from the starter. all my meter readings were done with the red wire touching the body and the negative touching the solinoid.

i cannot figure out how to think backwards. If i want to test the starter, the bolt is negative and the body of it is +

i really want to help the guy out, but i dont know how. If it were me i would already be ordering a starter.

what is the next step??

thanks


p.s. who the @#$#$ thought up the idea of reversing the ground, what benefit could that possibly have??

None, thats why i've only seen that on British cars. Why do you think ford ownes jaguar!

[Cap'n Krusty]

Ford doesn't owne (or own, for that matter) Jaguar any more. Aside from that, most Brit cars had gone to negative ground long before Ford bought Jaguar.

The Cap'n

[SirAndy]

who the @#$#$ thought up the idea of reversing the ground, what benefit could that possibly have??

Because they were way ahead of the rest of the world ...

The "Technical" direction of electrical flow is from positive to negative (because back in the day they didn't know any better).

The actual physical direction of electrical flow is from negative to positive!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif) Andy

[VaccaRabite]

I don't know the layout of a Healey, but IIRC the starter is easy to get to.

You can jump it using starter cables on a known good battery to test it.

Zach

[70_914]

p.s. who the @#$#$ thought up the idea of reversing the ground, what benefit could that possibly have??

None, thats why i've only seen that on British cars. Why do you think ford ownes jaguar!

Response 1: Positive ground cars are very resistant to rust, and electricity really does not care which direction it is flowing. It only needs to perform a job when it gets there.

Response 2: Ford sold Jaguar. India owns them now. Some guy named (drum roll) Tata.

No, really... They own Land Rover too.

[Tom_T]

p.s. who the @#$#$ thought up the idea of reversing the ground, what benefit could that possibly have??

None, thats why i've only seen that on British cars. Why do you think ford ownes jaguar!

Response 1: Positive ground cars are very resistant to rust, and electricity really does not care which direction it is flowing. It only needs to perform a job when it gets there.

Response 2: Ford sold Jaguar. India owns them now. Some guy named (drum roll) Tata.

No, really... They own Land Rover too.

Nice Tatas! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)

Hey - if the starter is spinning, then it is working, but the Solenoid is not engaging the gear. So give it a tap with a ball peen hammer while the older gent turns/holds the key/ignition to start to see if it will pop loose. Sometimes they'll get sticky sitting around, hot or just because they're British cars.

We had to do that hammer tapping trick on my Buddy's 68 Spritfire at every stop from San Diego to San Francisco & back. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

If not, then look for a Solenoid replacement if available, or a full starter if not. A lot of Brit parts suppliers advertise in Hemmings "Sports & Exotics" FYI.

[Katmanken]

Tata is the large Indian engineering and manufacturing company that they send your job to.

Had to work with those idiots. Company ordered us to stop using the US FEA engineers, and send the work to Tata. Frickin work was wrong time after time after time after time. Can you say fired US Engineers because the US Engineers were held responsible when the Tata PHD's couldn't do the work- no matter how many times you explain it to them????

Ca you say cost over-runs of 1300%

Remember the fasteners that broke on the Boeing Dreamliner wing test?

You know, the brackets that hold the wings on and took out some wing stringer too?

That's another Tata sucess story

Hmmm. Maybe they will keep the positive ground on the cars. Why not, they do everything else wrong.

[GeorgeRud]

If I remember correctly from my 65 MGB, the starter (Lucas) used a drive gear that spun on the armature to engage the flywheel, and not a Bendix that moved it into position. The hammer trick used to work to get it unstuck (which I'm sure it is after sitting for all these years).

You could probably remove the starter and try to lubricate the starter gear drive to see if it would loosen up so it can engage.

And yes, these were positive ground cars back then. I'm sure there was some reason they chose to go that route, but you have to remember these are the same people that choose to drive on the "other" side of the road.