Connected battery cables in WRONG order.

[bikerchick4life]

I have a 1998 dodge Durango 5.2 L 4x4. I mistakenly attached the cables(+&-) IN THE WRONG ORDER. I put the neg on first and then the pos ,well not really when I touched the positive post with the positive cable thingy it gave me a nice spark, and then that is when I realized what I did wrong. I then redid everything correctly, But when I got back in the truck I noticed nothing electrical was working... No horn, internal lights, No gauges Nothing! when I attempted to start her up she would turn over but not start... oddly the the exterior lights work fine.. Upon checking the fuses( yep I blew a few), I blew the cluster fuse. the horn, and my alternator fuse(140 amp), and another one that cant think of, but it was a pretty minor one. I replaced them all. When I hooked up the battery correctly this time, pos first and then negative. Nothing happened when I connected the pos + but when I attempted to connect the Neg - I got a spark and the new alternator fuse blew (again) and there was a small amount of smoke that came from the fuse when it blew. Can someone one please tell me what I'm doing wrong, Why is the alternator fuse blowing?(the other fuses did NOT blow this time) is there something else I should be checking, and a possible fix.. Thanks in advance!

Kellie

[Penelope Stopit]

There is a very good chance that the alternator rectifier has been damaged, some of the diodes may have gone short circuit

Disconnect the battery

Now find the alternator and disconnect all the wiring from it and tape up any terminals on the ends of those wires you have disconnected so that they can't short out to anything

Now fit a new alternator fuse and see if it blows or not, if the fuse doesn't blow with the alternator disconnected....you know the alternator is faulty

[TooMany2cvs]

Normally "+ve first" is only to reduce the risk of shorting to earth when you tighten the clamp on the +ve. If you touch the spanner to body, it doesn't matter because the -ve isn't connected. When you do the -ve, it doesn't matter, because you're "shorting" -ve to -ve.

How long's the battery been off? If it's been in storage for a while, I'm wondering if something's been chewing the loom.

[bikerchick4life]

Penelope Stopit said:

There is a very good chance that the alternator rectifier has been damaged, some of the diodes may have gone short circuit

Disconnect the battery

Now find the alternator and disconnect all the wiring from it and tape up any terminals on the ends of those wires you have disconnected so that they can't short out to anything

Now fit a new alternator fuse and see if it blows or not, if the fuse doesn't blow with the alternator disconnected....you know the alternator is faulty

Ok, I'll try that thanks! But what if it does blow again with it disconnected? I just want to be prepared for both situations.

[Penelope Stopit]

I mistakenly attached the cables(+&-) IN THE WRONG ORDER

I read this incorrectly, I thought you meant the wrong way neg lead to pos and pos lead to neg

I still think you connected the battery + - the wrong way or someone has charged the battery the wrong way round and the neg has now become pos and the pos has now become neg....check the battery polarity

[Penelope Stopit]

bikerchick4life said:

Ok, I'll try that thanks! But what if it does blow again with it disconnected? I just want to be prepared for both situations.

If it still blows you can post back here

Did you connect it the wrong way round or has it been charged the wrong way round?

[bikerchick4life]

TooMany2cvs said:

Normally "+ve first" is only to reduce the risk of shorting to earth when you tighten the clamp on the +ve. If you touch the spanner to body, it doesn't matter because the -ve isn't connected. When you do the -ve, it doesn't matter, because you're "shorting" -ve to -ve.

How long's the battery been off? If it's been in storage for a while, I'm wondering if something's been chewing the loom.

So I completely connected the negative terminal to the battery post and then I attempted to connect the positive terminal to the battery post and that is when I got the spark, and found out that I had indeed blown the fuses listed above including the 140 amp alternator fuse.

The Battery is Brand new from Walmart.

[TooMany2cvs]

bikerchick4life said:

and then I attempted to connect the positive terminal to the battery post and that is when I got the spark

The spark just shows some power's being used - which it inevitably will be, for ECU memories, alarm, stereo etc.

The fuses are blowing because far TOO much is being consumed. 140A is a stload, and has to be a fairly serious short somewhere.

[Penelope Stopit]

bikerchick4life said:

So I completely connected the negative terminal to the battery post and then I attempted to connect the positive terminal to the battery post and that is when I got the spark, and found out that I had indeed blown the fuses listed above including the 140 amp alternator fuse.

The Battery is Brand new from Walmart.

Perhaps Walmart charged the battery the wrong way round

[bikerchick4life]

Penelope Stopit said:

I mistakenly attached the cables(+&-) IN THE WRONG ORDER

I read this incorrectly, I thought you meant the wrong way neg lead to pos and pos lead to neg

I still think you connected the battery + - the wrong way or someone has charged the battery the wrong way round and the neg has now become pos and the pos has now become neg....check the battery polarity

How does that happen? Neg becomes pos and vice versa? Is there a way to tell? My battery appears to be a normal battery. I guess i'm confused.

[bikerchick4life]

Penelope Stopit said:

If it still blows you can post back here

Did you connect it the wrong way round or has it been charged the wrong way round?

Yes.. I connected the Neg first and then the pos. last.

[Mr2Mike]

bikerchick4life said:

Yes.. I connected the Neg first and then the pos. last.

This would not have caused the fuses to blow, if you actually connected the negative cable to the negative, and positive to the positive. As someone else mentioned, the order of connecting is for safety since it prevent an accidental short circuit between a spanner and the body of the car. Blown fuses strongly suggest the battery was connected backwards i.e. positive cable to negative battery terminal etc.

[Auntieroll]

Check the ignition is switched off ,ditto lights and any other electrical items, a small spark on connection is normal.

[Mr2Mike]

Auntieroll said:

Check the ignition is switched off ,ditto lights and any other electrical items, a small spark on connection is normal.

But blowing multiple fuses is not.

[bikerchick4life]

Mr2Mike said:

But blowing multiple fuses is not.

Ya.. everything way off, there wan NO key in the ignition when this happened.

[bikerchick4life]

Mr2Mike said:

This would not have caused the fuses to blow, if you actually connected the negative cable to the negative, and positive to the positive. As someone else mentioned, the order of connecting is for safety since it prevent an accidental short circuit between a spanner and the body of the car. Blown fuses strongly suggest the battery was connected backwards i.e. positive cable to negative battery terminal etc.

I connected the battery Neg To Neg and Pos to Pos. But I connected the neg to neg first and then attempted to connect the pos to pos and then that is when everything happened. Is it possible to buy a battery were the Positive side is actually the neg side and vice versa? If so How can one tell? I did compare the my old battery with the new one and the they were exactly the same. Like Idk.

[bikerchick4life]

Penelope Stopit said:

There is a very good chance that the alternator rectifier has been damaged, some of the diodes may have gone short circuit

Disconnect the battery

Now find the alternator and disconnect all the wiring from it and tape up any terminals on the ends of those wires you have disconnected so that they can't short out to anything

Now fit a new alternator fuse and see if it blows or not, if the fuse doesn't blow with the alternator disconnected....you know the alternator is faulty

I did exactly what you instructed me to do, and the fuse did NOT blow. When I turned the car to the on position the horn, cluster, and the interior lights fuses burnt out again. I used a test light this time to check the fuses and the only one that lit up was the o2 sensor. The rest of the fuses aren't responding to the light but when I pulled them they weren't blown. Do you know the rationale behind that?

[E-bmw]

bikerchick4life said:

Mr2Mike said:

This would not have caused the fuses to blow, if you actually connected the negative cable to the negative, and positive to the positive. As someone else mentioned, the order of connecting is for safety since it prevent an accidental short circuit between a spanner and the body of the car. Blown fuses strongly suggest the battery was connected backwards i.e. positive cable to negative battery terminal etc.

I connected the battery Neg To Neg and Pos to Pos. But I connected the neg to neg first and then attempted to connect the pos to pos and then that is when everything happened. Is it possible to buy a battery were the Positive side is actually the neg side and vice versa? If so How can one tell? I did compare the my old battery with the new one and the they were exactly the same. Like Idk.

Let's try the BASICS first shall we?

1. Look at the battery - the post marked with a + sign embossed in the plastic casing is positive, the one marked with a - sign is negative.

2.Look at your battery leads - the black one that goes pretty much straight to the bodywork is negative.

3. Make sure the black lead is on the battery post marked with a - sign.

Batteries come in many different configurations with posts at one side or the other, one way round or the other on opposite sides on opposite ways round.

You can use any configuration that you like BUT THE POSTS MUST HAVE THE CORRECT LEADS ON.

I have lost count of how many times you have been told now but I will still try again.

CONNECTING THE JUMP LEADS + BEFORE - OR - BEFORE + WILL NOT CAUSE THE PROBLEM YOU DESCRIBE YOU HAVE SOMETHING CONNECTED WRONG NOT JUST THE WRONG CONNECTION SEQUENCE OF THE JUMP LEADS!

[Penelope Stopit]

Will we ever find out what went wrong?

[E-bmw]

I doubt it, my prediction is that either it will suddenly "fix itself" or we will never hear from the OP again.

Either way, it will coincide with him opening his eyes.