[hdavis]

Would my Sprint Normale (1958) be positive or negative ground? Some diagrams seem to indicate positive ground, and my car has Lucas generator which could be consistent with positive ground

It is currently connected negative ground but things don't seem to be working well, it is for example not charging the battery. Would a positive ground generator and starter work well if switched on wrong (negative instead of positive)?

Thanks

 

[Lionel Velez]

Would my Sprint Normale (1958) be positive or negative ground? Some diagrams seem to indicate positive ground, and my car has Lucas generator which could be consistent with positive ground

It is currently connected negative ground but things don't seem to be working well, it is for example not charging the battery. Would a positive ground generator and starter work well if switched on wrong (negative instead of positive)?

Thanks

750 series Sprint and Spider normales were positive ground. Only the veloce series were negative ground. Easy to discern by comparison from the Lucas (positive ground found on all normales) versus the Marelli electrical system (negative ground found on the veloce series). IF you want to run your car as negative ground you would have to polarize the generator.

Lionel

www.classicwiring.com

 

[hdavis]

Thanks Lionel

 

[sagebrushbob]

Polarizing

the instructions for doing this are here:
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/electrical/178247-polarize-generator.html

 

[xalfaracer]

I have been driving my 60 Spider Normale with negative ground for some time and have had no generator problems. In fact, I switched it to positive ground and started having problems. I was told by an Alfa expert that the only problem would be with a radio. It may be that I used a different generator when I restored the car. It sat for some time and the parts became intermingled with the rest of my archives. The one problem I do have is that the water temp gauge does not work but the aforementioned expert (and he is really an expert) that the gauge is not polarity sensative.