Battery replacement issue (big one)

My wife's 1998 Concorde 3.2l was shutting down every once in a while
and the battery was kind of old so I went over to walmart and got a
MAXX-34s battery, I put it in and right when I put the negative
terminal on it started spewing sparks (burned the hell out of my
hand). I pulled the cable out and it stopped, now I had replaced the
negative terminal connector just then with a new one. I noticed the
auxiliary cable felt like it was severed and sure enough it was right
in the middle of the green wire. Now I'm clueless on what else to do,
I put the negative cable to the terminal just to see what it would do
and the windshield wipers came on and wouldn't turn off, no fireworks
this time but the windshield wiper thing bothers me.


Any help would be appreciated!


Ill update with some pictures in a minute.

 

Are you sure you hooked it back up correctly? What you describe
sounds like a battery that was hooked up backwards. If it isn't
backwards then the positive cable is shorted on something.

Steve B.

 

Thats exactly what I thought it sounded like, but the thing is I put
the battery cables on just like the old battery had them on, the weird
thing I was thinking of was the negative cable connected to the left
side of that red post that the positive connects to the other side, is
that correctly done? Maybe the old battery just didnt have enough
juice to give this reaction?

 

And would you know why the windshield wipers wont turn off? is that
because the auxiliary wire was severed?
Thanks for the help!

 

Hi afx...

Not a mechanic, an old retired electrical guy...

You are aware that batteries are available with the positive
and negative posts in the opposite physical positions, aren't
you?

Didn't say that at all well, so.... put the postive cable on the
positive post, and the neg on neg, even if the battery posts aren't
in the same positions on the battery.

I'm willing to bet you a dollar against a stale donut that you've
reversed them.

Take care.

Ken

 

Haha, Thanks for the reply Ken, Im a computer tech, not a car guy I
can just usually plug the two together for answers. I took some
pictures. Lemme upload em.

 

Negative = black; positive = red (the opposite of the convention used in
economics).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

here are the pics.


http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb11/afxtwn/?action=view&current=IMAGE_006.jpg
pic of the cables in general including the thick black one I replaced
that I connected to negative.

http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb11/afxtwn/?action=view&current=IMAGE_007.jpg
Auxiliary cable that got severed

http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb11/afxtwn/?action=view&current=IMAGE_008.jpg
Picture of the positive battery terminal on the positive side of the
battery.


Hope this helps!

 

As Bill said, black is negative, red is positive. That's the positive
side; on my wife's '00 Intrepid, there's a black cover over it
labelled "BATTERY + JUMP START" in bright yellow. Didn't yours have
that cover?

Looks like a fusible link that failed due to high current. A moment
of silence, please: that fusible link gave its life to try to save the
car's electronics.

I can't make out any markings that help me to guess what's going on
here. I see you put red felt under the cable; I can't see any
markings telling that that that's really the positive side. Your
camera seems to have decided the battery strap and something in a
sheath were more interesting than the battery, and focussed on them.

So... if I'm reading what you've said correctly, and I'm looking at
the photos correctly, you hooked up the battery backwards. There is
at least one toasted fusible link, and that positive battery lead in
the first picture doesn't look good either.

I don't even want to think about what might have happened to the
various computers, radios, etc wandering around the vehicle. Good
luck...

 

Well the markings on the first picture have a negative on it so im
sure thats the negative side, if that black cable connected to the red
post is a negative cable then I did it right.


Here is whats confusing me, I just put in a new battery, I didnt
change anything else out, the car started fine before I put the new
batt in.

 

So is it still a consensus that I put it on backwards? The cable on
the last picture is red so I figure it to be a positive.

To answer your cap question, about 5 years ago she took it to Sams to
have a new batt put in. They didnt know how to do it so they butchered
the hell out of the whole area braking caps and whatnot so I dont have
any caps left

 

That's just it, that is NOT the negative cable, it's the positive
cable. You connected the battery backwards, and like Joe said,
one can only wonder how much damage was caused.

Uh, yeah, because you hooked it (the new battery) up backwards.

 

I guarantee that you hooked it up backwards.

Cables come in all sorts of colors. You may notice that the fuse
link that failed is connected to a red wire. hmmm...

Thank Chrysler for putting safe guards on their vehicles,
otherwise you'd be posting with a face full of battery acid.

 

gocha, going to check on what I did manana.

 

Anyway, sorry that this is likely going to cost you hundreds if
not thousands of dollars.
On the bright side, you've convinced me to up my labor charge for
installing batteries.
What ever you do, DON'T buy a Mercedes!

 

That red post is to put a positive cable on.

 

I appreciate that. /sarcasm

 

Umm, generally red is the positive terminal and black is the negative,
regardless of where they are on the battery. No matter what, every auto
battery has a "+" and "-" marked next to the relevant terminals. Forget
about "doing like it used to look" -- just do it right.

If you did connect it backwards, there's a chance you've fried the
electronic brain (which would explain the weird behavior)....

 

Hee hee! I did this once (and only once!). It was on my 56 Chevy. Dang thing
started up and the only clue it was backwards was the 8 track chewed the sh*t
out of my Arlo Guthrie tape from Columbia House!

Daddy always said, if you don't know how......PAY the man!