I had an old Studebaker pickup that was positive ground, but didn't know it when I first got it running, hooked up the battery neg. ground. Started ok, just no charging sytem and the ammeter worked backwards. Then I got my first Sunbeam Alpine, also pos. ground. As Dono said, it can be a challenge to hook up a stereo sytem completely islolated from the chassis. Thought I had it done right, built a wooden console wrapped in vinyl to mount it in, then when I plugged in the antenna wire, ZAP! One fried stereo! Forgot the antenna is grounded! Eventually I just changed it over to neg. ground. Yes, just had to re-polarize the generator and switch the leads on the ammeter, and I think I had to reverse the wires on the coil but I'm not sure...it was quite a few years back!

I don't know why so many vehicles were pos. ground in the '30s, but my dad had a '37 Dodge and a '37 LaSalle that both were, along with a few others. But to answer the original question, I very much doubt that hooking the battery up reversed would have damaged your starter, they're actually pretty tough. My first auto shop teacher would convert old cars to 12 volt neg. ground using the original starters. They spun nice and fast, he said the key was to avoid any extended cranking. His '39 Chevy had electronic ignition and always started the instant he hit the button.

You should be able to find a shop somewhere that can rebuild your starter, around here it seems like every small town has a starter/generator/alternator rebuild shop. I don't understand why they would care if you had a title or not, you're just bringing them the starter to fix, unless you have some screwy laws in Ohio. I would first try swapping some parts around between the 3 starters you have, you might be able to make a working unit unless all 3 have the same exact problem. Good luck, -TD