Ian Jackson wrote:
In message
, David
Ryeburn writes
In article
,
BillyBobMarley wrote:
Not to be a smart ass but weren't a lot of the old British cars
equipped with a positive ground? What's up with that?

The electrons come out of the negative end of the battery. The Old Brits
were smart. They didn't want the electrons to jump off of the ends of
the cars, so they tied the positive ends of the batteries to the car
chassis. Except for those cars they exported to Poland ;-) .

In the UK, until around 1970, I think all cars had positive 'ground'. I
would be very surprised if USA cars were any different. I believe that
the reason for this is that it was supposed to reduce corrosion of the
electrical connections.

AFAIK, positive ground was never a standard in the USA.

While there may have been some exceptions in the very early days, all the
cars I've seen back to the 20's were negative ground.

I owned some positive ground British cars and there were "challenges", like
arguing with US mechanics that no, the battery wasn't backwards and putting
in anything but a British radio or electric fuel pump.