British pre-war and wartime magdyno equipped machines usually had a -ve earth system. They changed to +ve in the early 1950s to follow automotive convention....and the car industry then changed to -ve in conection with radio supression...and once again it took the motorcycle industry twenty years to catch up and end up back where they started !

This explanation seems logical and fits in with what I thought I could remember...

http://www.rrec-northeast.co.uk/positive_negative.pdf

Good to know Rik!

Makes littles sense for me to build a neg. earth system it seems. Good thing I asked.

/s

And yet my WD vehicles 1940-44 all have wiring diagrams that show a Negative earth system.(Morris, Austin, Jeep, Ford etc) and of course all the bikes are Neg earth.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Hrmpf... this should of course read "Makes little sense for me to build a POS. earth system it seems", not the other way around as it came out.

So it goes, as the great man wrote.
How am I ever going to get my mind sorted between my different vehicles one might wonder...

/s

I have a positive earth Commando as well. Keep a pack of fuses handy if working on the electrics is all that I can suggest !