Battery Sparking

[fnbentley]

I'm putting a 1978 124 Spider back together. I'm pretty certain that all of the wires are put back in their proper place in accordance with my drawings. However, whenever I try to hook up the battery, it sparks. When I dropped the connector onto the terminal the wire from the starter to the alternator began to melt. If anyone knows why, that would be fantastic, I can't figure it out.

[stefhahn]

You obviously have a short in a non-fused circuit. This could either be in the starter, the ignition switch or the alternator. Check all cables and connections there for brakes etc.
ciao,
Stefan

[mbouse]

sparky, here boy... come here sparky! leave that other dawg alone. SPARKY!


Trace those starter and alternator wires from the start to the finish. somewhere you have grounded something that should not be grounded.

Or, as Stefan suggests, there is a bare spot on a wire that is touching the sheet metal somewhere.

[mdrburchette]

or maybe someone wired it with the red as the negative. My 71 Spider has the wrong colors and it sure makes it confusing when the battery needs a jump.

[pope]

If you put your tongue to the red wire... Oh forget that! Do it the long way.

[So Cal Mark]

I guess we should ask that very first question, is the battery hooked up correctly? reversed polarity will cause all of the smoke to escape from various wires

[trippbannister]

the alternator began to melt.

this made me laugh out loud.

[racydave]

But, its not really funny if you let all the smoke out. You can use a old-fashoned test light. Dis-connect the pos cable from the battery. Hook up the test light between the batt and cable.Make sure key is off, and nothing else is on ( trunk or interior lamps ). When the test light lights up, you have A short. Remove the offending short, the light is off ( open with no current flow thru circut ) Good luck!

[fnbentley]

I followed all of the wires out. But maybe I'm reading my drawings wrong. Attached to my alternator is a black & white wire that goes to fuse 10, a brown wire that connects to my starter, and a violet wire that goes to the battery charge light on the tach. The black & white wire and the brown wire are both attached to the same stud on the alternator itself. On the starter is a thick green wire running directly to the battery, a brown & white wire that goes directly to the ignition switch, the brown wire going to the alternator, and a red wire going to the ignition. The green, brown & white and the alternator wire are all connected to the same stud. The other stud has the wire going into the starter itself. Per my drawings, this seems correct, if it isn't, please tell me so I can put my new Spider back together.

[mbouse]

back to basics. please verify for us that someone has not swapped the neg and pos wires at the battery. we've heard it more than once where someone has hooked a red wire up as the negative lead.

then, do raceydave's test. if his test gives your test light power... you definitely have an issue somewhere.

[kmac33]

Mike,
My 74 has the Green wire coming in on the left as the positive and the red on the right as the ground.

[mbouse]

which can get very confusing for some... red should not be used for ground wires, it should only be used for positive connections.

black should be used for ground.

this is why we are asking fnbentley to double check his connections. as you comment, would not be the first time we have heard that the ground wire was switched after it left the factory, for the wrong color, and the new owner gets things hooked up wrong.

[fnbentley]

Which wires are you reffering to? The battery wires are good, you can see where the ground connects to the car. If you mean at the starter, I've followed those wires out.
http://www.globallistics.com/spidersweb ... mes/22.jpg

This is the drawing I'm using, and I'm pretty sure all the wires are as per this drawing. The wire that begins to smoke is the black one going to the alternator

[racydave]

Its possible for the Altrenator to be shorted out internally... Hope you get her figgured out!