Battery polarity reversed now no charge.

[GTHawk]

This Spring, I discovered a completely dead battery in my 1958 Packard Hawk. I charged the battery then later noticed the ammeter gauge was reading negative while charging instead of positive. I drove the car this way for some time then finally decided to check the battery because I was told the battery was in backwards. The battery was installed correctly, however the polarity was reversed. This obviously happened when I recharged the battery and, inadvertantly charged the thing backwards.

Before discovering this, the generator did quit charging. Since then, I have installed a new battery. Now, when I turn on the lights, the ammeter reads negative as it should. The problem though is that I now cannot get the thing to charge. I have changed the regulator and the generator is charging, but it's not recharging the battery and the car will not run without the battery connected. I have polarized the generator. One other thing is that when I push the points on the regulator together, they should, normally stick and start charging the battery. What happens here is that they simply vibrate and will not stay together. The old regulator did the same thing.


Any ideas?????

[JeffDeWitt]

I know it's an old joke around here but how are your grounds, especially the ground between the regulator and the body.

[Edsel G. Tattooer]

Oh i cant think of the what to call it..... I guess I have a touch of old timers going on... did you polarize the generator? Look it up on the forum there is a great description on how to do it. Generators are not like alternators in this way.

Crap........ I hope this makes sense to someone here.

[StudeRich]

The vibrating points could be telling you that some of the armature bars are shorted with debris between them causing a pulsating current. Possibly testing and inspecting the Generator at a good Automotive Electric Shop would trouble shoot the problem.

[GTHawk]

I will check the grounding as suggested and also I stated that I had polarized the generator but looking it over I may have done this incorrectly and will check the generator as I have another that I know is good. I will let you all know what I've found.

[GTHawk]

It was the generator. It appears that when the polarity was reversed this caused the generator to charge full blast and we drove it that way for maybe one hundred miles. So we now have a new regulator and another generator. So if you ever do something careless like I did,"DO NOT DRIVE THE CAR."


Don

[barnlark]

Don,
Have you hooked up a volt meter up to the battery to see exactly what it is doing yet with the new generator and regulator? I am going through a similar problem. My generator was fine last year, but I had an auto electrical shop go through it and refurbish it during the winter. It over-charged on me, too. It ruined the new regulator and the armature in the generator and blew acid out of the battery.

They had polarized it in the shop... they said. I just got it back with another new regulator and a new armature and it is doing the same thing. The generator is still not listening to the regulator. I polarized it to get the current going in the correct direction at the regulator by quickly touching the Batt. to Gen terminals per their instructions again. Same thing..the volt meter dances up and down for a while and then just keeps charging upward. I'm thinking the nos regulators may both have been bad, but I'm not sure yet. Anyone else have any ideas???

Anyway, word of caution; check it all again even though the parts are all new, Don.

[Dougie]

I just read an article over the weekend on battery polarity reversing after a battrey is fully discharged. It had something to do with shorting a cell out. I'm at work now, but will look for it tonight. I wouldn't mess with anything else until you try known a good battery in there first.

[GTHawk]

+Dave;

As I mentioned when I started this thread, I caused this by inadvertantly charging a completely dead battery backwards. The charger I am sure was connected negative to positive and positive to negative. I later drained the battery completely and charged is correctly, but found that it would not hold a charge that way. It did interestingly though hold a charge all the while the polarity was reversed, so I suppose if I'd hooked it to the car backwards it may have worked okay, but of course the battery conections are each a different size and I simply wanted to have everything installed correctly.

I now have a new battery, new regulator and a good used generator. The ammeter is recording a small charge as it should, so all seems to be performing properly.
you say you've changed the regulator and generator. I would make sure as I did that all three items are either new or known to be good. A bad part can cause other parts to fail. Just make sure they are all in good shape.

[GTHawk]

Dave;

When I started this thread I mentioned that I must have inadvertantly charged my dead battery backwards thus ruinning my regulator as well as the generator. I installed a new regulator and a new battery. The generator seemed to be okay but still would not charge. After checking everything I decided to change the gnerator also, so at this point everything except the ammeter was changed, and it all worked with the ammeter showing a slight charge as it should. Interestingly I drained the reversed battery and recharged it correctly, but now it will not hold its charge, however it did when the polarity was reversed. If I had installed the battery backwards while reverse charged it may have worked. I just did not like that idea of cobbeling it up.
My question for you is have you changed the battery? I would make sure all three items are good. One more thing make sure all is connected properly, arm on regulator to arm on gernator. Field to field. Its easy to do this wrong. double check.

Good Luck


Don

[GTHawk]

I thought I lost everything so now I'm in here twice. Just some of that oldtimers stuff. Actually now three times.

[barnlark]

Everything is new, twice. Battery is new, too. I tried two of them. Still over-charging. Ground problems seem likely, but I have tried new ones at new locations to no avail.

[GTHawk]

Wow;

I asked for advice because I was stumped and because I thought all things were good. Turned out that my GOOD generator was bad. Have you changed all of these things at the same time instead of trying them one at a time. Just a thought, one could be damaging the other, as this seems to happen. I did check all my grounds with and ohmeter, prior to going back to the generator and in my case it all checked okay. Certainly check ground connection from the body to engine. Battery ground to regulator to generator and make sure no hot wire a shorted to ground. For example if the generator field is grounded it will charge full blast. Check that. I've learned this stuff just recently.

Keep me posted


Don

[barnlark]

Wow;

I asked for advice because I was stumped and because I thought all things were good. Turned out that my GOOD generator was bad. Have you changed all of these things at the same time instead of trying them one at a time. Just a thought, one could be damaging the other, as this seems to happen. I did check all my grounds with and ohmeter, prior to going back to the generator and in my case it all checked okay. Certainly check ground connection from the body to engine. Battery ground to regulator to generator and make sure no hot wire a shorted to ground. For example if the generator field is grounded it will charge full blast. Check that. I've learned this stuff just recently.
Keep me posted, Don

Sorry to hear that, Don. I had the same thing happen to my generator. Turned out today that both of my NOS regulators were not up to the task and failed. I bought a new one from NAPA. Hopefully that will cure my over-charging problem. Test day tomorrow. Good luck on yours...I'll send that wiring harness out soon.