1940 Chevy Truck Starter ?

Bought a project 1940 Chevy Truck original all the way...my question is to all the people in the know.......is the engine starts and runs but the wiring on the truck of course is shot. The guy I got it from did some wiring to get
it going.......the question is the battery was set up with positive ground. I bought a new wiring harness to replace the original wiring and the book I have alone with a part place says that this truck should be negative ground. If hook up the positive to the starter and negative to ground, is this going to work, since the truck was starting with a negative to starter and positive to ground?.....Confused...Just thought I would get inputs before I make a bad mistake and smoke the new wiring harness.........Thanks to all with inputs.........AL

 

the starter does not care about the polarity, it will work either way

but THE VOLTAGE REGULATOR DOES it should have the polarity stamped on the side of base with the part#
the voltage regulator can be changed and the generator polarized and all should work

on 6 volt a lot of stuff was positive ground

 

Hey Thanks for that info eugene vik.........I now feel better knowing that I just need
to follow the manual schematic drawing ........with the negative on the battery going
to ground................and the positive to starter motor.........

 

HELLO!
6-Volt GM cars and pickups were NEGATIVE ground, some other makes too, just like modern 12V cars and pickups.

The ammeter will read backwards and the coil may get hot but the car will start and function just like a positive ground ground car hooked up backwards does, which is darn sure more commonly done than the other.

6-Volt Ford and Mopar and others were positive ground.

Ford became positive ground in 1956 when they adopted the 12-volt electirc systems.

 

Looking at the schematic on the manual looks like you hit the original starter pedal on the floor the motor will turn even if the key is not on I know it will not start because no voltage to the coil but looks like the motor will bump over........is this true?

 

GMCs were the only positive ground GM vehicle and yes you can hit the ****on at all times and it will turn over.

 

A buddy is changing over his "53 GMC 1/2 ton to a V8 and 12 volt's, he want's to keep the original key ignition switch, do i need to keep the starter pedal on the floor or can I run a toggle switch to do the same?