I picked up this 8 volt battery with a flathead I bought. I used it to fire the engine on a rolling cart and when the battery was low I checked it with my meter and this is what I found.(current flowing wrong direction) . My leads are correct and I checked six other batteries I have and they read correctly. If I reverse the leads its the normal positive reading.I used a second meter to verify as well. I dont understand how the starter and coil worked either? Chargers are 6 and 12 volt, how do you charge this 8 volt?
Thanks Roadrunner. Glad you could confirm that if the system as a whole is reversed in the car it will operate , with issues however. Im guessing it went dead and someone charged it backwards. I will discharge it and recharge correct polarity. Anyone know what charger for 8 volts, or a safe way to use 6/12 volt style common charger?
I had something similar years ago in a project rig I bought. As I was dismantling it (wasted body, I needed the frame and running gear) I noticed the battery was wired "backward". I asked the guy i bought it from and he said the battery had died (left the lights on all night, or something) and he charged it with the charger leads reversed. (Wasn't paying attention, I presume.) It worked fine, just had the wrong polarity. I kept it for a year or two as a spare for testing and jumpstarting, eventually used it as a trade-in on a new one. Doc.
FOLLOW-UP* I did as 440 RRer said and discharged it, then charged it slowly back up correct polarity. Holds 8 volts fine now. Thank you! It didnt take a month to do, just that long for me to follow up sorry.
One day roadrunners battery info ^^ will come in handy. At least i,m subscribed to this thread now and know where to find it later.
What voltage did you use to charge the battery? I did not see that answered anywhere. I ***ume you used six volt since the 8 volt batterys were used on six volt systems.
I once stupidly hooked up my 56 Plymouth (AUS) and ran it with reverse polarity.It ran fine,it just took me a while to work out why the inline fuse for the cd player kept popping. Brilliant post Roadrunner!
I dont know what you're supoposed to do since they sell 6 or 12 volt chargers.I dont see how to use 6v to charge an 8 volt battery. A couple volts short of a charge there! I used the 12v on trickle and hooked up the meter to see what it was doing. It read 9.1v charging which is what it needs.
In the mid 60's I had a Nash Metropolitan which came from the factory with 12V positive ground. The generator died and a replacement was way out of my budget. One of the guys going to trade school with me said just put a Chev generator and regulator on it and I did for a total cost at the time of about 30 bucks. We swapped the battery to neg ground and reversed the wires on the coil and it ran that way until I traded it away. The radio worked and the car didn't care.
The Jalopy Journal
