Gauges.

[dougbgt6]

Pete,

Are you having another bold attack? Keep taking the pills

Doug

[Chris A]

5 minutes ago, dougbgt6 said:

Pete,

Are you having another bold attack? Keep taking the pills

Doug

I don't know about Pete having a bold attack but either he is imagining picture 2 or I have selective eyesight 😎

[Colin Lindsay]

The base of the terminal... that explains why the same ring spanner fitted over the top of either this morning..

[Tom]

Coil +ve goes to points and the battery terminal with the smallest dia ( base ) bolts to the bodywork so it's looks like mine is neg earth........how embarrassing!

[Colin Lindsay]

Check that first!! (Just what you're doing lol!)

I thought I remembered from my early Mini days that the +ve to points indicated a +ve earth car... so will be happy to be proved wrong if your neg terminal on the battery connects to the bodywork. Anyone?

 

[Pete Lewis]

I dont use  Bold  being an  Aldi wash fan  the print is just as copied and pasted  from good old  GOOGLE

 

Pete

[NonMember]

1 hour ago, Tom said:

Coil +ve goes to points and the battery terminal with the smallest dia ( base ) bolts to the bodywork so it's looks like mine is neg earth........how embarrassing!

 

52 minutes ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Check that first!! (Just what you're doing lol!)

I thought I remembered from my early Mini days that the +ve to points indicated a +ve earth car... so will be happy to be proved wrong if your neg terminal on the battery connects to the bodywork. Anyone?

You are correct, Colin. The points connect one side of the coil to earth, so it should be the -ve terminal on a -ve earth car.

I would guess that what Tom has is a car that used to be positive earth but has been converted, only the person who converted it forgot they needed to do the coil, too. Either that or the last person to change the coil put it on wrong.

[Tom]

Whilst scrutinising the battery terminals I can now see a little red blob of paint on the drivers side terminal and a little blob of black paint on the one that bolt to the bodywork, to me that indicate Neg earth. But looking at the Haynes manual neg earth wiring diagram it implies the Negative side of the coil should go to the points not the positive as mine is so maybe the coil is just connected up wrong?

[Colin Lindsay]

5 minutes ago, NonMember said:

 

You are correct, Colin. The points connect one side of the coil to earth, so it should be the -ve terminal on a -ve earth car.

I would guess that what Tom has is a car that used to be positive earth but has been converted, only the person who converted it forgot they needed to do the coil, too. Either that or the last person to change the coil put it on wrong.

Thanks Rob... I was starting to doubt something I remembered from way back!

Tom - it's simple to swap over if you want to, just identify the correct + and - terminals on a battery and then decide which you want to earth. It won't affect any of the major components, they're not polarity sensitive although do change the coil leads to suit, and if you need to, repolarize the dynamo.

[Tom]

Yes I was wondering about the dynamo. If I spin it up with an electric drill and put a multi meter on the output to earth and it's giving a positive output would that confirm neg earth?

[Pete Lewis]

copied extract

Dynamo

Look at the Generator. You should see a large brown wire and a smaller wire connecting to a terminal marked F (for Field). Pull off the wire to the Field terminal. Connect a short jumper wire to the large brown connection (make sure you have metal-to-metal contact). Touch the jumper “lightly / slightly” to the Field terminal on the generator. You should see sparks, touch again (more sparks), and again (again more sparks). Now disconnect the jumper wire from the large brown connection, and re-connect the Field terminal wire. Your generator is now polarized negative earth.

and having a coil reversed can last for ages with no real snags then things start to break and you grind to a halt , wait a while and she starts and runs , till the next time  get out open bonnet kick the tyres etc and she starts again , till the next time .  so yes the wire to the dizzy coil connection  must always replicate the earth of the car 

its quite a common failing 

Pete

 

[Tom]

My car is not running yet so can't do the dynamo thing but I did just run the generator with my electric drill with the +ve lead of my digital multimeter ( that shows + and - voltages ) on the large lead and the neg lead on the casing. The dynamo gave a positive output so I'm pretty sure now my car is neg earth, I think it may have been positive earth when new? and as you said earlier it is quite common for folk to forget to switch the coil connections over.