Positive Ground????

2510Paul

Well-known Member
Can anyone explain why JD started out with a positive ground, particularly on the new generation?
 

IIRC it was believed way back then that when battery was attached + ground battery cable ends/posts wouldn't corrode as rapidly as when attached - ground. YMMV
 
Paul, it wasn't ONLY some tractors (Deere and others) that used POSITIVE Ground back in the early days, especially at 6 volt, many automotive manufacturers did the same prior to NEGATIVE Ground becoming the industry standard which was thereafter followed. I have read some articles that spoke to the belief there was less galvanic corrosion where two dissimilar metals join if the battery and resulting frame conducted return current was configured at POSITIVE Ground. Electrons do have a mass and they are Negatively charged particles, again as I best recall that's been a longgggggggggg time ago lol . There are other theories around but this is one I saw frequently, others may be aware of different reasons for the early POSITIVE Grounding and can add to this..........

Far as I'm aware ALL the two cylinder gas Deere's came from the factory at POSITIVE Ground, and if I recall correctly the first of the New Generation, UNTIL they switched from Generators to Alternators, were also POSITIVE Ground.

At the Naval Industrial complex where I practiced Electrical Power Distribution DC current was passed through buried metallic utility piping to reduce corrosion, it was referred to as Cathodic Protection.

John T
 
(quoted from post at 10:20:45 07/02/18) Why was Chevrolet always negative ground

Just lucky and got it right? Unlike Benjamin Franklin who got it backwards and forever doomed us with current flow VS electron flow squabbles ever since. Cars and trucks ran about 50/50 back then as to grounding schemes with anything from internal radiator corrosion, frame corrosion, battery terminal corrosion and spark plug polarity (thermionic emission) being the blamed cause of it. But after 40 years and no solid proof of anything they opted for a standard and the standard settled on was negative ground. Model T was negative, Model A was positive ground, no doubt Ford owners weren't happy with the change up. Ford stayed positive until the standardization took root in the mid 50s.

In my opinion they should have corrected Benjamin Franklin early on but they never did. Turns out most electrical systems are biological and in those systems positive ion flow (hole, conventional current flow) is a real thing where electron flow itself doesn't happen so much. It's only in man made metals that electrons do the flowing. There will always be two ways to look at it and maybe that's the best way after all?

As a nine year old child I had no such insights much less answers as to why electron flow was backwards to conventional current flow. I learned it backwards from the start because that was the only way it made sense to me and I was not a happy camper about it. I've since seen the other side of the issue while still reading and discussing schematics backwards. It is what it is.
 
We studied all that hole theory and electron theory and conventional and electron current even Maxwells Equations and Solid State Physics yearssssssss ago at Purdue in the late sixties and it was Greek then also lol

John T
 
Thanks guys for your comments. I get asked this every once in a while. It seems someone gave me a explanation that made sense to me a long time ago but it escapes me now. Thanks again. Paul
 
(quoted from post at 18:14:47 07/02/18) Thanks guys for your comments. I get asked this every once in a while. It seems someone gave me a explanation that made sense to me a long time ago but it escapes me now. Thanks again. Paul

I think John T was on the right track. Positive ground is supposed to be prefereable to reduce frame and body corrosion.
 
Sorry Teddy I don't know its mass and as I recall it is a negatively charged particle. Its been tooooooooooo long since (like 50 years ago grrrrrrrrr) I studied solid state physics and electronics of solids and all that molecular theory.

John T
 

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