i WAS HOPING SOMEONE COULD TELL ME WHY MY wh 953"S ELECTRICAL SYSTEM IS positive GROUND?

Because somebody hooked the battery up backwards.

It has been like this since I bought it. It is my first WH and the guy told me to make sure I hook up the jumpers right so I thought for some reason it was SUPPOSED to be Positive ground.
It starts and runs great.
So I should reverse the wires then???
This sure helps me out because I have been using the 953 to compare to other models.
Thanks Again TT

I'd be curious to see if the ignition coil wires are still hooked up "correctly" -- with the power wire from the ignition switch going to the "+" terminal and the points and condenser leads hooked to the negative post.
I'm thinking that the starter/generator might turn backwards if you hook it up as negative ground. It might have been switched because someone installed a starter/generator from a Cub Cadet - which rotate CCW instead of CW. Of course, I could be way off base here too.
Guess I'm going to have to go conduct an experiment now.

I just went out back aND CONDUCTED MY OWN EXPERIMENT.
i SWITCHED THE WIRES ON THE BATTERY AND CHECK THE DIRECTION OF SPIN AND IT WAS THE SAME AS BEFORE. tHEN i TURNED ON THE KEY AND IT STARTED RIGHT UP.
I have owned a few brittish cars in my time and they were all Poisitive ground but if you mixed up a wire you would burn something up.
Electrical problems have always been a problem for me so I won't fix it till it's broken.

The starter/generater does not know the difference on polarity. I have converted many 6 volt positive ground tractors to 12 volt negative ground. The starters just spin faster. Generators have to be upgraded to 12 volt though. The only thing you may need to do in changing yours back to negative ground is polarize the generator and everything will work as it should.
Mike

I was thinking of a permanent magnet DC motor, not a starter with wound fields.
(But the fields in a CC starter / generator are different to enable the "opposite" direction of rotation.)
You are correct about polarizing a generator, but since a starter / generator has power applied to the armature to function as a starter there is no need for polarization.

I don't know much about that machine in particular but I have two tractors that are pos ground. I have a 1946 John Deere B that is 6v pos ground, and a 1946 Farmall H that is also pos ground. I think it's common on the farm tractors but for 12v smaller applications, neg ground is how it should be.