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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Positive ground logic?

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Positive ground logic? -- page: 1 2     Stroker 02-12-2017 @ 7:57 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 For those of you with British vehicles, I just found a new product that you might find useful when restoring the "Earth-Return" Lucas systems: Stroker 02-12-2017 @ 7:52 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 Juergen, in my Iowa county there was a farmer many years ago who was tapping the induced current from his fence that was directly underneath a Mid American Energy Public Utility power line next to Highway 92 to provide lights in his barn. He didn't "string" the line, however as the fence was there long before the power company ran the line. Still, he was charged with "intent" and subsequently convicted of theft. Those AC lines are kind of like model T Spark coils, in "reverse" in that they build a field of usable voltage that "collapses" 60 times a second. I have long-narrow shop building full of machinery and equipment; which is right next to and parallel with a high voltage utility line. I've often wondered what would happen if I were to shut off the main to the building; would I detect 60 cycle induced voltage in my shop wiring? juergen 02-10-2017 @ 12:43 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 256 Joined: Jan 2010 One should never say never. We, in Iowa, have a proposal for a high voltage dc transmission system to transmit (dc) power across the state to Chicago from our wind farms. The old adage is no longer relavent. In the old days it was easier to raise the voltage from ac generators via transformers for transmission at low current and hence low line losses and then lower the voltage via transformers to useable voltages. Now with high power electronics, dc voltages can be raised and lowered without major losses or costs. The problem with high voltage ac is the losses the line induces as a transformer in atmosphere. We all know it is illegal to string a line under ac power lines to get a free current (flow). DC does not have these losses. And dc is safer as it takes a lot higher voltage to go through the skin which acts as a blocking capacitor. So times and technologies change. This message was edited by juergen on 2-11-17 @ 3:05 PM TomO 02-09-2017 @ 7:47 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7250 Joined: Oct 2009 Money grabbing power companies were named after Edison. Edison was a genius in making other peoples ideas into marketable products. Tom 51f1 02-08-2017 @ 5:25 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 573 Joined: Oct 2009 (Thomas) Edison was an advocate for DC power. (Nikola) Tesla was an advocate for AC power. If Edison had prevailed, we'd have a DC power plant on every corner as DC cannot be practically transmitted over long distances. Tesla should get more credit. Long distance transmission requires high voltages to overcome resistance losses. There is no practical way to increase DC to the voltages that would make long distance DC transmission economical and then lower it to a more useful (and safe) working voltage. Transformers only work with AC; therefore, AC can be easily transformed up for transmission and down for the user. Edison gets way too much credit in my opinion. Edison was a tinkerer, not a scientist. Tesla was an engineer. They did name a car after him. What did they name after Edison? Richard This message was edited by 51f1 on 2-8-17 @ 5:27 PM engine 02-04-2017 @ 9:16 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 103 Joined: Dec 2012 I have a 1968 Triumph motorcycle and it has a positive ground system as well. It is a English bike Jeepbut 01-31-2017 @ 7:08 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 76 Joined: Jan 2017 This has been interesting. Thanks to all. MG 01-30-2017 @ 10:40 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1254 Joined: Nov 2009 wmsteed said: "Tesla who was an advocate of DC power." - Tesla was certainly NOT an advocate of DC power. Tesla teamed up with Westinghouse to promote AC. Tesla is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. "The War of Currents (sometimes called, War of the Currents or Battle of Currents) was a series of events surrounding the introduction of competing electric power transmission systems in the late 1880s and early 1890s including commercial competition, a debate over electrical safety, and a media/propaganda campaign that grew out of it, with the main players being the direct current (DC) based Edison Electric Light Company and the alternating current (AC) based Westinghouse Electric Company." TomO 01-30-2017 @ 7:40 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7250 Joined: Oct 2009 POS grounding also had to do with metal transfer on the electrodes of the spark plugs and the points. Read the Ford Shop Theory Manual for a good explanation of the thoughts back in the day. I had never heard the leaky wire corrosion theory before. It sound like it may have come from England where the wires in a Lucas system leak smoke. Tom 51f1 01-29-2017 @ 2:23 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 573 Joined: Oct 2009 This is what I recall about positive grounds: In the old days, some cars had positive grounds to help minimize corrosion. Automotive wiring was insulated with cloth and, usually, with some type of paint like varnish added for extra protection. Of course, the cloth based insulation absorbed moisture which allowed the electricity to “leak” through the insulation to ground. Electrical leakage promoted the formation of corrosion on the metal car body and frame. Some people thought that, when the ground was positive, the corrosion was reduced, so they used positive grounds. Of course, people working on cars during the early days were not well educated and did not have the research to back them up, and, in my opinion, they were probably wrong. Later, in automotive history, and, with the advent of the transistor, the electronics industry standardized on the negative ground. When electronics proliferated, the ground was switched to negative to match the electronics industry standard. At the same time, the insulation on the wiring was improved. Richard

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