Another electrically challenged perplexing dillemma

I hooked it up according to instructions. I mean, how difficult is it to place the red clip on the positive terminal, and the black clip on the negative terminal. Right?

Plug it in.

Red light blinking indicates battery is not hooked up correctly. How could this be?

So, I remove the clips and place them on another 6V battery. Red on positive, black on ground (negative).

Red blinking light still indicating battery not connected correctly and not charging fo r this other battery too.

So, I reverse the clips this time: red on the negative, black on the positive. BINGO. steady red light indicating battery is charging.

SO, what's the deal here?

Could it be the wires on the battery tender are connected backwards inside the unit?

BUT, here is the question:

6V positive ground system: could it be that somehow the battery charges have been reversed? But both of them? how could that happen? And if that's the case...how could my positive ground 6V system start my tractor?

Well, I'm stumped. Battery turns the tractor over, and it seems that there is enough voltage in the battery to start it; but I would like to keep it charged at optimum and experience the wonderful joys of a technology dependant society and have confidence in a battery everytime I go out to start the 62 year old tractor.

Insights? or suggestions? 9N'er

Only check is external voltmeter. Traditionally, the voltmeter has a red (+) and a black (-), putt'em on the battery's (+) to (+) and (-) to (-). Should read (+) 6 volts if battery is correctly charged.

If incorrectly charged, I wouldn't mucka round, get a new fresh charged battery, install it positive ground, re-polarize the generator before starting.

An incorrectly charged battery will often times have warped plates and internal shorts and won't have enough ampassity to start reliably without continueallly trickle charging.

Oh yes, BTW, starter don't care, positive or negative, still turns the correct way. Ammeter does care, traditionally reads (+) when charging (wheather positive or negative ground, if it doesn't read (+), swap ammeter lead around so it does read (+) when charging)..... ..Dell

Perhaps the other battery was charged wrong. But how could that happen?

Could reversing the lead wires froma battery charger reverse the polarity of a battery? That may have happened one time...i think it was my neighbor, dog, or my wife that did that. I would never hook up the wrong wires from a charger to the battery terminals. :) yeah right, if you beleive this...

THANKS for the insights.

Good luck,

Arne

So this winter just out of habit I hooked the positive terminal to this side.....same result as you.....then I put the little pigtail on and have it routed out by my tool box.....

I guess I'd use a voltmeter to determine which is positive and which is negative....it is possible to reverse charge a battery although I here it's not a great thing to do....

Good Luck
Steve