Learned that one the hard way with my first car- a '66 MGB back in the mid 70's. Positive ground is to be feared... Had just installed a top-of-the-line (read $29.95- I was 16 at the time...) Radio Shack AM/FM/8track when the neighbor girl of my dreams came by and asked for a ride. Quickly taping up the last of the leads, off we went with the radio untested. Something obviously wasn't connected right when we left or it should have self-immolated when I reconnected the battery (in the trunk mind you, the battery compartments behind the seats were drink coolers- right?)- I reached over, pushed in Bachman Turner Overdrive and set off a massive brushfire under the dashboard. Things went downhill from there.
"Any drive you don't return from on a tow truck was a good one..." Jon '77 (mostly) 1500 "Ol' Yeller" FM66043 7U Nass #104 www.bigolbear.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:owner-triumphs@;autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Freeman, Noah Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 10:10 AM To: Triumph (E-mail) Subject: Warning- reversing polarities on (some?) Motorola radios... Hey all- Just talked to Gary Tayman who is replacing hte innards of my Tr-4s radio witha digital circuit system (the outside remains the same)...he said that an electrolytic capacitor had exploded all over the inside, prboably b/c of a reverse polarity. Apparently when the PO reversed the ground, the radio exploded. Also interesting is the fact that most triumphs use bendix radio, but mine was a Motorola from '65, in my '63 TR4...implies that the car was either unsold for two years, or had an aftermarket radio (That still said triumph) installed in 65... So a word of warning- while we all say that the polarity reversal is easy, if you have certain radios (at least '65 motorolas...you can see by looking on the passenger side side fo the radio- the motorola logo is unmistakable), dont reverse the polarity on them. Noah _ /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.