It's a lot of expense and trouble to convert to alternator and negative ground. If your generator is working, I would leave it as is. It's a solid design - nothing wrong with the factory design, and changing/setting points every few years isn't that much work.
I agree. That old design has a generator & voltage regulator to charge the battery. The only thing that differs from standard practice in most machinery is that it is positive ground. It was and is an excellent system. Very durable, parts are cheap, and it can be refurbished by most any mechanic with a few wrenches in a home shop.
There is no problem with positive ground - except you have to remember which way it goes if you replace the battery. The reason for positive ground is that it was thought at the time that corrosion on the battery cables would be reduced by using a positive ground. On mine, that seems to be true.
BTW, when generators and voltage regulators are new, they are rarely polarized. After installing them but before doing the final wiring or running them the field coils in each are "flash polarized" which sets their initial polarity to either positive or negative ground. After that, they are good to go. All you are doing with flash polarization is setting the initial north/south polarity for the residual magnetism of the iron core inside the field coils to match your battery. That residual magnetism is the "boot strap" which allows the generator to begin generating current with polarity to match the battery when it first starts to turn.
As far as the ignition goes....same thing. The originals last for decades or longer. And they are cheap to replace. The original coil, points, condensor, distributor cap, and spark wires can all be replaced in a few moments for pocket change. Another advantage is that system is easy to diagnose. You can actually see it working. Nothing in the ignition is polarity sensitive. It does not need to be polarized.
Electronic ignition would probably be a step backwards.....
good luck.
rScotty
