Battery cables
 

I bought the 85GS sight unseen from individual in Florida. I was aware there would be no battery in vehicle upon delivery from car carrier. One of the batt cables has a wide yellow strip and the other is solid black. My question which cable goes to what post on the new battery I bought. Please help. Don’t want to cross connect and dick it up. Thanks jimmy

black with the yellow is the positive. if you want to double check, it should branch off and go to the fusebox right there, and then the starter.

the other cable, solid black, should go to the chassis, and then the engine block under the oil filter.

NO!!!! The Yellow stripe is the negative on my 85 GSL. I thought that it was originally the positive and hooked it up that way and it fried the headlight and main power solenoid jumpers.

it's simple, just follow one of them and see where it goes.

The black cable with the yellow tracer should be the negative cable. The solid black cable with the wire that branches over to the fusible relay box is the positive cable. Here is a picture of my car showing the cables:

Attachment 746286

Attachment 746287

Typical engineering, they couldn't use the standard, red for positive and black for ground.

As others have said, trace the wires and then replace them, they are too old.

Also, the factory ground has a connection on the struct tower. I like to get two short pre-made grounds and run one from the battery to the shock tower and another from the alternator long bolt (on the nut side) to the shock tower. The long one goes from the battery to the starter long bolt. Tractor Supply has a good assortment of pre-made cables.