I joined this forum because I am baffled by what I experienced this weekend helping wiht my buddies 1989 Defender. He has 1989 with diesel engine, no ECU or other computer controls that was a military vehicle in Turkey. He purchased a battery where the terminals were reversed and hooked it up without confirming anything. I was asked to help him fix the LED lights that no longer worked after he put in the new battery. My first thought was reversed battery but he started the truck so I moved on. After about an hour of finding the LEDs all wired in reverse polarity i realized it has chassis positive. I figured this could be normal considering the vehicle origin but before I could dig deeper he had switched the battery terminals which fixed the lights. He then started it again. What? I expected the starter motor to spin wrong and not start one way or the other, aside from potentially damaging the charge circuit. Why would the starter spin in one direction despite reverse terminals on the battery? Or do does the bendix kick out and engage despite the direction of rotation? Would the engine actually compress and kick over while cranking backwards...intake and exhaust valves in the wrong succession would seem to be a significant issue so I assume the starter was spinning the same direction despite reverse polarity.