Okay, I am just a simple accounting teacher fumbling my way through working on my 75 year old Dodge convertible. I have been reading about electric motors and switching online, but I am having a hard time finding the last bit of insight to get the wiring done. I'd like to know if it matters to the life of the motor, safety, or otherwise which direction the power flows.
Here's the situation:
The convertible top system runs two electric motors driving a gearbox reduction to a set of screw extenders instead of the more modern hydraulic systems.
The motors originally ran in a 6v positive ground system.
The electric motors have three wires coming out of each of them.
The red motor wire on each motor is connected to one of the brushes on the commutator.
Green is connected to another mysterious part of the motor internals.
Black is connected to yet another part of the motor internals.
None of these three wires has continuity with the steel motor housing
Switching power from the green wire to the black wire reverses direction of the motor. The motor doesn't seem to care which direction the power flows. It works the same if I hook positive 12v to the red wire and move the ground from the green to the black wire to reverse direction; or if I hook the ground to red and move the ground from green to black to reverse direction.
I'd like to hook the red motor wire up to ground. This way I'll be able to run the positive power through the dash switch and have no power to the motors unless they are running. Maybe I just feel weird hooking a red connection up to ground? Am I going to cause any problems hooking it up this way?
Thank you,
Jon
Here's the situation:
The convertible top system runs two electric motors driving a gearbox reduction to a set of screw extenders instead of the more modern hydraulic systems.
The motors originally ran in a 6v positive ground system.
The electric motors have three wires coming out of each of them.
The red motor wire on each motor is connected to one of the brushes on the commutator.
Green is connected to another mysterious part of the motor internals.
Black is connected to yet another part of the motor internals.
None of these three wires has continuity with the steel motor housing
Switching power from the green wire to the black wire reverses direction of the motor. The motor doesn't seem to care which direction the power flows. It works the same if I hook positive 12v to the red wire and move the ground from the green to the black wire to reverse direction; or if I hook the ground to red and move the ground from green to black to reverse direction.
I'd like to hook the red motor wire up to ground. This way I'll be able to run the positive power through the dash switch and have no power to the motors unless they are running. Maybe I just feel weird hooking a red connection up to ground? Am I going to cause any problems hooking it up this way?
Thank you,
Jon