Possable or Impossable ???

[60eldo]

  So I got my car and it runs great all lights etc. Here it is , the pos battery cable is on the neg side and vise versa, car runs great

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Which terminal is connected to ground?

[60eldo]

  poss cable goes to ground on battery

[bcroe]

In theory the gen could be magnetized to work either polarity, not
sure about the volt reg.  The radio contains transistors, so it could
not work if your battery is connected backwards.  The ign would
have less than optimum spark if backward. 

Honestly the idea of connecting the bat backwards is scary, will
the reg contacts weld up and cause a fire when run?  And recovering
from that situation has the same issues.  Bruce Roe

[60eldo]

  How I found it was, I bot a new sterio and when I hooked the pos to pos of battery the sterio started smoking, and it fryed

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Yup that'll do it.

[bcroe]

It would be impossible with an alternator, because the diodes would
short out the battery, big smoke, explosion? 

Are you planning to fix it?  I might remove the bat, install a SHTF bat
disconnect switch just in case, put in a new volt reg, put in the bat,
follow procedure to magnetize the gen, then put one hand on the
switch and try it out.  Bruce Roe

[76eldo]

I had the same thing happen to me when my battery was completely drained due to the courtesy light on the rear of the front seat being left on.

I accidentally charged the battery and reversed the polarity with the charger and believe it or not the car ran perfectly for about a year this way but ruined my radio.  I had a radio converted to electronic FM and Blu Tooth and it smoked up as soon as I turned it on.  In checking my voltages I discovered the error.
Oddly enough, the seat, windows. and power top worked correctly while the battery was in the reversed state.

Check your battery with a volt meter.  If the polarity is reversed in the actual battery it's now junk.  If it meters correctly with your meter red on positive and black on negative then the battery is OK but you need to flip it around in the tray and connect it correctly, or get a new battery with the terminals in the correct positions relative to the tray and cable locations.

[60eldo]

  reversed the cables, red on red black on black now all is good and my gas guauge has stopped bouncing around so I think Im good to go. BUT WIERD,,put in a new battery also