Pos or Neg ground question?

OK fellas yer gonna have to gimme a tip on this one...i just purchased another M and the battery is Negative ground, the battery went dead so i was going to jump start it and almost put the positive jumper on the negative side because my other M"s i have is positive ground....soooo.....it"s a 6 volt with a genny on it...which way does it go? i hate to stick "er in there the wrong way and fry something if something already isn"t fried ha ha. thank ya fellas

Ted: All IH 6 volt tractors were positive ground from the factory. They can be changed, so it's only a guess what you might have 60 years later.

Usually nothing has been changed, just some bozo put a battery in backwards. Which way does the amp gauge move when you turn on ign switch? If factory and battery is in backwards, gauge will go pos. If it has bee changed to neg ground, gauge should go neg.

Pos to pos-------neg to neg-----no matter which one is ground. Don"t have tractors touching.

I much prefer to have all my 12v on neg ground and all my 6v on pos, just to avoid what you almost got into when there's any jumping to be done.

If it were my ranch, I'd do with the M what Hugh suggested, give a look to see if it really is set up for neg ground or the battery's just in backwards. If the latter is the case, it's fairly easy to turn the battery around. Before starting the tractor, repolarize your generator with just a quick touch of a jumper between the BAT and GEN terminals on your relay, run it and see how it charges. Can't rule out the relay or regulator having been cooked with the reversed polarity, but it may still be okay.

If it is truly set up for neg ground, that's still fairly easy to switch to pos if you want. Unhook your battery and swap the wires between the poles on the back of your ammeter. If you have a battery igntion (as opposed to a magneto), you'll need to swap the two small wires on top of the coild, so that the wire from the battery is connected to the - pole, and the wire to the distributor and points is hooked to the +. From there, you should be able to hook your battery back up, repolarize as described and go. There may be a hitch if you have a regulator that is designed for negative ground only, but try the rest and see what you get.

I much prefer to have all my 12v on neg ground and all my 6v on pos, just to avoid what you almost got into when there's any jumping to be done.

If it were my ranch, I'd do with the M what Hugh suggested, give a look to see if it really is set up for neg ground or the battery's just in backwards. If the latter is the case, it's fairly easy to turn the battery around. Before starting the tractor, repolarize your generator with just a quick touch of a jumper between the BAT and GEN terminals on your relay, run it and see how it charges. Can't rule out the relay or regulator having been cooked with the reversed polarity, but it may still be okay.

If it is truly set up for neg ground, that's still fairly easy to switch to pos if you want. Unhook your battery and swap the wires between the poles on the back of your ammeter. If you have a battery igntion (as opposed to a magneto), you'll need to swap the two small wires on top of the coild, so that the wire from the battery is connected to the - pole, and the wire to the distributor and points is hooked to the +. From there, you should be able to hook your battery back up, repolarize as described and go. There may be a hitch if you have a regulator that is designed for negative ground only, but try the rest and see what you get.