batteries in reverse polarity

I would say the chances of it charging are 0 to -50 and the chances of damage to something is 99.9. There is a possibility it may operate depending on how the speed control and switching are wired.

Yes.

Of course not.

See above. How lucky do you feel?

How hard is it to open up the battery pack again, and swap the leads? That's

To charge it, it must be done properly + to - . to try to charge it now will simply fry the cells to reverse polarity and ruin them...Take the pack apart, and swap the 2 leads - simple enough and alot cheaper then a new charger, batteries and drill. You don`t charge your car battery the wrong way, you don`t reverse charge Nicads either. It likely might work in the drill - awhile, but frying the speed control is most likely. I hope you properly Heat Sinked the cells so you did not overheat them while soldering, it is another way to ruin them fast. At least you caught it and asked, you will be ok, you are not a moron, you found a simple mistake.

Is there an echo in here?

Will ruin your batteries but you could reverse the leads in your charger.

Take the pack apart, and swap the 2 leads.

Take the pack apart, and swap the 2 leads.

Thanks, problem was that leads are molded into plastic clip, so I had to run a new wire to swap the + end of the battery chain with the - end of the battery chain and connect these to the lead wires/tabs. i did get the batteries with tabs already spot welded, so i don't think i overheated. thanks for the advice....fixing the problem was easier than i thought...i was thinking I'd have to unsolder the entire chain and redo, but with extra portion of solder tabs already trimmed, that wouldn't have worked. now to charge up and see what happens...

And then blow up the spare battery pack that is wired correctly after forgetting how the charger is configured...

Why not reverse the wiring in the charger? ;^P