Quote from: rusty on June 22, 2014, 09:16:58 PM
Are you positive?

At my age, it kind of depends on a lot of things.  J/K.

Are you sure it is positive to earth, or just positive ground? Is there a difference?  I mean, I can see using a frame aspositive lead, but the electricity will still flow from negative terminal to the positive one I would think.  I dont see how you can ground to earth on a motorcycle with a closed dc circuit.

Am I just missing the meaning of earth vs ground?

Larry

most of the older International Harvester tractors had Positive ground  C,M,MTA

you stand on the earth !
you stand on the ground !

my 1941 Farmall A has positive ground.  I bought a 6-volt positive ground
alternator to install in place of the generator. (another project)

back in my younger days, some of my automobiles had positive (+) ground,
I belive my early Fords were such. 1940-1941's

I just happen to think that my 1949's & 1950's Fords also were still (+) ground.

Yupp!  Positive earth!! Many words were different!; Spanner, bonnet, Boot, Bulkhead, Damper, dynamo, fascia, kerb, megger, petrol, scuttle, swarf, trafficator, wing (fender)...  etc..  When you work on foreign cars, you need to learn the terms...

Thanks Guys

Chilly

BTW -Why is most modern stuff negative grounded? Is there any difference?

How about the term, Strangler Valve.  On this side we called it the choke.   What I find amusing is when we had stagecoaches, the luggage was put in the boot.   But when we started with automobiles, a trunk was strapped on the back and it just became the trunk.  Winter coats have hoods, but at one time a hood was a folding top for a delivery wagon.   Since vehicles are often referred to as her,  the British used the term bonnet for engine covering, while we stayed with the somewhat male, hood.   A common people separated by a common language. 

Quote from: Chillylulu on June 23, 2014, 10:30:28 AMAm I just missing the meaning of earth vs ground? Larry

In the UK we tend to use the term earth for the yellow/green wire in a mains (AC) cable - that's connected to the earth pin of a plug, and the wire in the socket goes back to the consumer unit (fuse box), and from there to a spike stuck in the ground/soil/earth...

In theory the -ve (in the UK blue) wire is at 0 volts, and thus at earth/ground potential, and in many systems the neutral wire is grounded to earth before it enters the building..

On a vehicle the chassis/frame/body is considered the earth - as these are mainly DC systems it doesn't matter whether the earth is +ve or -ve, as long as all components e.g. battery/generator are connected the same way around... It may have some slight effect on corrosion at jointing surfaces. When vehicles went from generator to alternator, and from 6v to 12v systems most manufacturers changed from +ve earth to -ve earth..

Quote from: Chillylulu on June 23, 2014, 06:22:47 PM
Thanks Guys

Chilly

BTW -Why is most modern stuff negative grounded? Is there any difference?

+positive earth encourages galvanic corrosion of the surrounding bodywork - whereas with negative earth is much-easier-to-replace electrical contacts that corrode.
Old copper wires weren't coated & would stiffen & corrode, but now all copper wires are coated so not a problem...

Sparking plugs.

A lemon.

Ever owned one?

Another thing to ponder, the very early cars used dry cell batteries to run the ignition, the zinc case is positive, so you would want your car positive grounded so the battery wouldn't short out ...

Rechargeable lead/acid batteries don't have an exposed conductor, so this became totally unimportant..