6 Volt Battery manufactured in a wrong way, damages?

[T-Bird55]

Hi, today I received a new 6 Volt battery for my original 6 Volt positive ground system 55 T-Bird.
Battery came from a german manufacturer. When I installed it (like the old one was) I recognized that the clock wasn't running anymore... so I checked it with my CTek 6 Volt charger and connected the red plus "+" to the "+" of the battery and minus to "-" and then put in the power cable and the CTek was showing the red "!" warning sign
and I was wondering what could be the reason and then realized that the CTek charger shows this only when the polaeity is connected in a wrong way to protect battery as well as the charger to avoid damages.

So I connected the minus to plus and vice versa with the CTek and then it started to charge normally .... which means definitely that the batterys polarity is manufactured the wrong way.... ! wow can you imagine this...

BUT before realizing this I made a try to start the engine with this new battery and it surprisingly worked.... not the clock. How is this possible and what damages caused this maybe?

I reconnected the old battery again with correct polarity and the engine started again ( and the clock worked again also). What do I have to check regarding possible damages the wrong battery has caused maybe? Coil only? Thanks a lot for any help and sorry for my rusty english.


mike

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[doug7740]

Mike,

In October of 2014, I purchased a 1955 Thunderbird, prior to the purchase a new 6 volt battery was installed by the prior owner. I drove the car approximately 350 miles before putting the car into storage for the winter. When I removed the battery, I discovered the battery was installed backwards. This car is 6 volt positive ground and the battery was installed with the negative to ground. I did not have any problems with the charging system, the starter did not turn the engine over backwards, even the power windows and seats operated correctly. The items that did not work were the radio and the clock. In the spring when the car came out of storage, I connect the battery to positive ground and the clock started operating once again. As far as the radio was concerned, after I replaced the blown fuse the radio operated once again.

The reason there was no damage, and other than the radio and clock everything operated normally, was because the starter motor, power seat motors, and the window motors are not polarity sensitive. They will work properly positive or negative ground. The same is true of the radio if it has the original mechanical vibrator. Apparently my radio did not have the original mechanical vibrator, because it blew the radio fuse. The clock is polarity sensitive; if you want to operate it on a negative ground system, all you have to do is move a lug on the back of it.

I don't think you caused any damage to the coil or the ignition system, because whether the current is flowing through the primary coil windings from positive to negative, or negative to positive, high voltage is still produced in the secondary coil windings when the points open. I was told that the reason Ford used a positive ground was it created a stronger spark than the negative ground.

I have been driving my car since it came out of storage in April and I haven't had any problems.

Doug
1955 Thunderbird Blue

 

[captrick]

For you guys who have a 6 volt system in the earlier cars and are having battery problems there is a company that makes 8 volt batteries which work great on 6 volt systems. it eliminates the hard starting when the engines are hot and the generator doesn't know the difference. I am sorry I don't have the name of the company handy, you can go on the internet and google Batteries and find it. Rick