I recently pulled a dummy, installing a battery backwards in a 65 jag S
type (for sale by the way). The radio (original) stopped working. I
quickly reversed the install to positive ground. Two days later the
radio worked but had no volume. Two days after that all was back to
normal.
On Thursday, September 18, 2003, at 07:25 PM, Triumphs@Autox.team.net
daily digest wrote:
> Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 23:16:24 -0700
> From: "Randall Young" <Ryoung@navcomtech.com>
> Subject: RE: Old car question, no LBC
>
>> If the car is equipped with an alternator (which uses semiconductor
>> rectifiers), polarity is extremely important. But a 51 Dodge will
>> have a
>> generator and the biggest hazard is repolarizing the field.
>
> I got to thinking about it (after I said it, as usual), and there
> might be
> some old tube radios that might be damaged by reverse polarity. I
> believe
> the problem could only arise if they used a synchronous vibrator type
> high
> voltage rectifier rather than the more common diode, which would allow
> reverse polarity to be applied to the high voltage filter capacitors,
> which
> might not like that. A lot of 'might's strung together there, but the
> OP
> probably has the right idea : to be safe rather than sorry.
>
> Randall
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