I have a 1990 Accord LX 2.2L manual transmission. This car was

originally an automatic but the previous owner swapped in a manual

transmission and a newer engine. When I took it to a shop, they

told me that whoever did the swap didn't ground some wires

correctly but that they took care of it. The car was running fine

for a few weeks, then one day I went out to try start it and it was

completely dead. I had been driving it just an hour earlier but now

when I turn the key it makes no noise and no lights come on or

anything. So I figured that the battery was dead, gave it a charge,

same thing. I also got the battery checked and it was fine. I then

checked the fuses and the 80a main battery fuse was blown. I

replaced that fuse and as soon as I reconnected the battery it

blew. I then disconnected the alternator wire from the fuse box and

replaced the fuse again. [IMG]http://tinypic.com/r/k9xcn5/5[IMG]

This time the car did come on when I put the key in the II position

but it did a bunch of weird stuff. The windshield wipers came on

and one of the running lights came on. So now I determined that the

problem was in the alternator because whenever it's connected to

the fuse box the main battery fuse blows. I need to know if it is

in fact my alternator and if I should replace the whole thing or

just a part of it. The alternator plug is a bit corroded so maybe

that could be the problem? [IMG]http://tinypic.com/r/3179zeo/5

[/IMG] Battery posts and terminals appear to be fine. [IMG]

http://tinypic.com/r/rbctav/5[/IMG] Any help will be greatly

appreciated. Thanks.

 

I replaced the alternator and the fuse is no longer blowing, however the car still wasn't getting any power except for the horn. I then realized that the main ground wasn't connected to the negative battery terminal. I connected the ground and whenever I try to connect the negative terminal to the negative battery post, sparks fly off and it melts the post.

 

You do realize the pic's in your post are hard to follow........then, I think you have the cables backwards. Flip the battery around, check the fuses again and see what you have.....in one of the other pic's it looks like the high amp fuses do not have factory screws holding them in....are they too long and making contact with the body?

 

The battery is in the right position, check.
Cable backwards? Nop.

Have you made any modifications recently? I mean electrical component other then those stated above?

 

Can I ask how you came to these answers?

EDIT: Do not EVER let the color or a cable make you "think" it is what it is.......If you have spent time under the hood of any car.........enough.

 

this!

i've had someone connect jumper cables backwards, but the worst that has happened was made the jumper cables ... & was glad he didn't blow the alternator fuse, fry the ECM/ECU, or worse...


Lost Again's picture looks like he got the wrong battery from the start! those terminals of the battery should be facing to the middle of the engine bay, not towards the overflow bottle
(means he should have gotten 58 ~ without the R = reverse terminals)

 

oops, he's got a 1990

so the cables should be like this: with the positive on the inner and the negative by the fender:

 

Those cables were like that when I bought the car and were like that for the whole month that I was driving the car. Also the fuse is not attached in that picture, I just layed it on top of the screws for the sake of the picture. I ended up towing the car to my shop because I was tired of it sitting in my driveway not moving but thanks for the help everyone.

 

Person.....you have it backwards. The cable to the fuse panel should be coming from the hot (+) side of the battery.

Plain and simple question.....the cable to the "right" in your pic....WHAT DOES IT CONNECT TO? Are you man/woman/honest enough to answer that?

So yes. Take it to "your shop" and have them correct the issue..I was trying to help but if you don't want it............have a good day

 

Look dude I don't think it matters what the cables connect to considering that the car was working 100% fine for about a month until this started happening. Also I'm pretty sure that my mechanics would have said something about that
the last time I brought the car in to the shop. They are Honda specialists.

 

^ x2.

Whoever didn't catch it in the first place while it's in the shop is a Bubba!

 

update?

 

Not to bring back an old post, but that is a bullshit answer. It always matters what your battery cables are connected to. Ask me how I know...

 

Yeah just to be sure I would take it into the shop again instead of spending money on the fuses, not saying there all exspensive, but it would be the smartest thing to do in this case. It probably is something compleatly not related to anything that we are even looking at or it is something that is compleatly obvious that people just overlooked and didnt take 2 seconds to recognize that it was wrong, im newer to cars, like really new so I cannot say much but to me I would check all the fuses again, try to clean up all of the rust and corrosion off the alternatior plug. I dont think someone is that dumb to get (+) and (-) wrong but there out there, I doubt you got that wrong so nedxt thing I could think of is checking all the wires for any cuts or any wires that have been exspoded and toutched other wires and have had a surge then you might need to replace a couple of those? but then again I could be wrong... Last thing I could think of is maybe your grounder came off? or broke or something, hope I was atleast a little close to your problem like I said I am newer to this, hope I helped.

 

Here's an obvious answer people tend to overlook. Did the OP ever get the battery tested for a dead cell? I had an Optima on another car that melted a cable on a charger due to having a dead cell, which causes power to feed back through the battery cable and melt the cable/terminal. A dead cell opccurs whenever a battery has been deep cycled too many times or been drained completely dead or a major electrical incident occurs and whatever that protects the electrical system fails.