I hooked the battery up back wards.....now what?

[Randy Richards]

I HAVE A 1010 DOZER DIESEL AND AFTER DOING A STEERING JOB ON THE LEFT SIDE, TODAY LOOKED LIKE A GOOD DAY TO TRY YHR OLD GIRL OUT. SHE HAD BEEN SETTING SINCE LAST FALL. EVEN WITH THE POSITIVE TO POSITIVE IN STEAD OD POSITIVE GROUN SHE FIRED RIGHT UP. I WORKED HER FOR 3 HOURS AND THE SHUT HER OFF. THEN SHE WOULD START AND THE BATTERY WAS ALMOST TO HOT TO TOUCH, I WAS GOING TO TRY AND CHARGE IT BUT I FIGURED I BETTER NOT AT LEAST TILL IT COOLED OFF. S0 THE BIG ????? IS WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT, DID I SCREW UP THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, THE BATTERY, THE REGULATOR, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.. i AM VERY APPRICATIVE OF THE HELP FROM ALL THOSE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND ARE WILLING TO SHARE THEIR KNOWLEDGE WITH THE NOT TO FOWARD THINKING. THANKS RANDY

[shinnery]

If you had an alternator in this situation I would say you would have blown all the diodes in the alternator. If it is still a generator, you probably just charged the battery backwards to the max current the generator was capable of putting out. Check the voltage across the battery and note the polarity. I bet the generator was as hot as the battery, may have melted the solder where the wires solder to the communtator. Sure won't help the life of the battery to be charged backwards. Did you notice what the ammeter was showing?
Bryce

[Randy Richards]

would I be better off putting a alternater on the 1010 , will that change the positive ground to negitive, what else would/ could be effected by a change over? what's the price of scrap iron now?

[shinnery]

Most alternators are a three phase AC generator with a diode bridge rectafier mounted on the output to change it to DC. It depends on how it is wired up as to it is positive or negative ground. Nearly all are negative ground. The main benefits are more current available at a lower rpm and less wear on the brushes since they run on a smooth slip ring instead of a multisegament communtator. And only the exciting current goes thru the brushes, not everything. If you change to an automotive alternator that is negative ground you need to reverse the wires on the coil and reverse the wires on the ammeter so that it shows charge when it is working. One of my Molines somebody put a alternator on it and it shows discharge when it is actually charging. I know what it is doing so I haven't bothered about it.
Last price I had for junk cars is $165 a ton here in Abilene, Texas. (about a month ago)
Bryce

[Randy Richards]

well let's see what we have now....a battery that when you try to hook it up, positive ground the sparks fly and it starts to melt the post, now if we try and hook it up to negitive ground it does the same thing. I charged the battery to full charge before trying to do this, is the generator and the regulator fried? Can I bypass the system and hook directly to the starter? And get it running that way? I would like to get the thing running to get it to the shop by pulling pushing or what ever it takes . I'm pretty sure at least someone has had the same problem... HELP ME IF YOU CAN