Battery Sparking
 

Hi guys I'm finishing up a drivetrain swap, i changed
My injectors, put in new clutch, flywheel, tranny, driveshaft, and rear end and starter. In the process I removed the alternator and UIM. After putting everything back together I can't hook up the battery bc it sparks and smokes, any ideas where to start troubleshooting?

Bad ground, somewhere.

That means that when you connect one or the other poles, the charge is already grounded someplace and you're basically 'switching' it - completing the circuit, causing it to arc.

Positive cable to negative post and negative cable to positive post would do it. Factory negative cable has the yellow stripe to it.

EDIT: When hooking up the starter did you get the positive terminal mixed up with the negative terminal?

The battery is relocated to the bin and I'm certain I'm using the right cables on the correct posts

You'd know, pretty quick... Popping a main-fuse is a pretty noticeable thing....

I still ++ the vote on do a ground-check.

I went throught to check everything and it all looked pretty good, the only thing i noticed was the harness for the tranny wiring got snagged in between the starter and bellhousing, so i unbolted the starter and pulled that out, some squished wires but their all still in tact. After removing that harness i went to test the battery again and it didnt spark, but then there was no power. Turned out to be my inline fuse in my battery wiring i guess finally popped from the arching.

So my next thought was to undo things and test the battery, maybe that will help me narrow down where the cause of the problem could be. So i disconnected this cable from my starter from the right side bolt (which i was pretty sure is where its supposed to go?)

After removing this wire the battery hooks up with no problem, but then i noticed smoke coming from my engine bay. The wiring from my electric fan to the main engine fuse in the interior fuse box (i know this isnt the proper way to wire up efan, that is next on my list to properly wire up) had gotten so hot and was smoking, i opened the fuse box and that fuse melted?

What do you guys make of all this? Do you think these problems are related?

Ok. I got it once input everything back together it works fine, could having the starter and batter hooked up but not the alternator cause this? That's the only thing I can think of

No, but if the alternator was not hooked up but the B+ terminal coming in contact with a ground could.

With the alternator hooked up place a meter lead on the alternator housing and the other lead on the negative post (not clamp) and it should give you a reading of 20 millivolts or less (<.20 volts). If it is higher than that then there is a grounding problem.