Negative Earth

[melhookv12]

hi all. been asked to replace a loom on Jaguar Mk1.
I replaced one on a Mk2 a few years ago but this car had already been converted to neg earth.

The subject car has been stripped for 20 years. New loom going in and running a dynamo.
Am I right in thinking this would of been positive earth from the factory. Should I leave it or convert it ?
The owner isn't technically minded and the car isn't going to be a show car.

What do you think guys. pros and cons. ?

[Strugs]

It will be positive earth. As I understand it, only really a problem if you want to plug things like sat-navs into a cigarette lighter or install modern stereos.

[lowdrag]

My Jaguar is positive earth but I have an insulated cigar socket which is negative earth. Unless the car is going to be entered for concour competitions I would forget the positive earth and go for one of these:-

https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product_lis...

It looks like a dynamo but is an alternator. Wire the car up negative earth and the owner will bless you. We all carry phones, satnavs, tablets and all the rest of the paraphenalia and it will make living with the car much easier, providing a far better charge rate and you can improve the lighting at the same time.

[grumpy52]

Build it as a -Neg earth , flash the dynamo if your going to retain it . If using the original coil it will fail after a couple of months , the wiring on the ammeter will need swapping everything else should be fine .

[melhookv12]

Thanks for the replies.
Will go negative earth.

[crofty1984]

Don't know about cars but old bikes have a zener diode in the charging circuit that needs to be changed for a modern regulator/rectifier.