New battery, electrical smoke everywhere! HELP!!!

nglenn82 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:48 pm

Today on my drive home from work, my dashboard started to light up like a Christmas tree. Shortly after it lost power and then died all together after that. My first thought was a bad battery so I got a new Optima red top (model 34) and installed it. i hooked up the ground first, then the power. As soon as I touched the power cable to the positive terminal, sparks started to fly as the cable nod terminal tried to meld together. The positive cable got extremely hot and there was some smoke that started to come from the fuse box in the engine bay. Additionally, when I went to grab something from the glovebox, I could smell that burnt electrical smell like something on the interior also got extremely hot. At this point I have no idea what to do or how to approach this situation. Any and all help is not only welcomed, but greatly appreciated.

Mike92104 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 23, 2015 10:58 pm

Wow. The only thing I can think of for that amount of damage is that the positive and negative terminals were crossed when you installed the new battery. For the dash light issue, there's a known problem with wiring chaffing behind the fuel head. You might dig into that chunk of the harness and see if there are any dead shorts.

Another possibility I just though of is a shorted out alternator, but I'm not sure that would do anything to wiring inside the cab. That smell seems to really permeate, so maybe it's confined the the engine bay.

ShaqDiesel · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2015 12:43 am

I agree with nglenn82. The positive and negative terminals would had to have been crossed. If you put the battery in 180 degrees off (which is easy to do), that would create the crossed terminals situation. Otherwise, the positive and negative cables cannot reach the opposing terminals.

cerich · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:14 am

The battery that came with the CRD was a not the standard group 34 as far as post positions go. There is also the 34r as well which I believe some folks have used because they felt it positions better.

If you put the wires on backwards hopefully not too much damage. Good luck :cry:

Billwill · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:53 am

I agree that the terminals were probably put on with the wrong polarity.

Some electrical damage has probably been done but bear in mind that the thick lead coming from the Alternator to the Positive side of the battery has a built in "fusable link" inside the cable....near the battery end.

Remove this thick cable on both ends and check for continuity or else with the engine OFF the cable at the alternator end should read +12 volts with respect to ground if the fusable link has not blown!

Also check the cable harness behind the Fuel Filter Mounting Bracket as mentioned as it is a known problem that chaffing to chassis of the harness may happen on the 2006 CRD!

You can download the 2006 KJ Service Manual here..includes Circuit Diagrams. :wink:

http://www.colorado4wheel.com/manuals/Jeep/KJ

papaindigo · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:59 am

As I recall the original red top was a group 34R which means the + and - are reversed. A regular group 34 battery will fit just fine but you have to mount it backwards with the + terminal adjacent to the left (as viewed from inside) front fender.

I agree it sounds like reversed terminal which creates a dead short to ground and has a nasty habit of melting wires inside the electrical tape wrapping and the current seeks the shortest/fastest route. Been there done that on a 1956 MGA where I was reversing polarity, not hard, from + to - but my mistake was thinking I had to swap terminals on the fuel pump to prevent it from running backwards. BIG mistake as that melted the line from the battery all the way back to the pump but did no other damage so I just had to string a new wire and rewarp like 15' of the harness.

New battery, electrical smoke everywhere! HELP!!!

Who is online