The Ford Barn

Jotalb09 · 12-06-2025, 08:20 PM

Hello, I recently bought a 39 ford pickup with original style flathead and 6 volt electrical system.Not my first early Ford, but the first time with this issue. None of the electric gauges work, but the truck starts and runs fine. Going through all the wiring to figure out what was wrong and in the process I realized the battery is installed with negative ground. Obviously this has something to do with the gauges not working, but I wouldn’t think the truck should have started and ran this way (wouldn’t the starter run backwards?). Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is it possible it was converted to negative ground? Or that somehow it ran anyways, but maybe fried something? Not sure if the generator works or not, but I’m pretty hung up over this.

12-06-2025, 08:20 PM	#1
Jotalb09 Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2024 Posts: 5	Backwards battery Hello, I recently bought a 39 ford pickup with original style flathead and 6 volt electrical system.Not my first early Ford, but the first time with this issue. None of the electric gauges work, but the truck starts and runs fine. Going through all the wiring to figure out what was wrong and in the process I realized the battery is installed with negative ground. Obviously this has something to do with the gauges not working, but I wouldn’t think the truck should have started and ran this way (wouldn’t the starter run backwards?). Has anyone seen anything like this before? Is it possible it was converted to negative ground? Or that somehow it ran anyways, but maybe fried something? Not sure if the generator works or not, but I’m pretty hung up over this.