Quick battery terminals question
 

Ok, the colored black/red boots are gone on the battery terminals and I removed the battery from my car last year. And I want to test out the starter, and light switches before I pull my engine. My memory sucks so please tell me which one is negative or positive? I don't wanna fry or short anything out.

The terminal with the short wire should be negative (black) right? And the long and stretched wire is positive (red)?

If someone can glance under their hood real quick and let me know, I'd really appreciate it. :) Want to try and pull the engine tonight.

on mine, the shorter one is positive and the longer one is negative.

Hmm....odd. I was scanning through other people's engine bay pics thread and the short wire is usually negative.

Anyone else??

On my battery, the negative cable has a yellow stripe on it.

The negative cable is at the front of the engine compartment, the positive farther back toward the fuse block. Also the positive post is bigger so the pos cable would be really loose on the neg terminal and the neg cable would be really tight or not go on the pos terminal without spreading it out. If you're still not sure, follow the cables. The neg cable goes to the engine block, on top by the clutch slave cylinder.

Dude, just whip out a meter and set it to ohms. Read each cable end to ground (any bare metal chassis point will work, or just use the engine block). The one that reads close to 0 ohms to ground is the negative...

Can't find my multimeter.

Ok, I just checked out my car again. Theres a black boot on the short wire and the long wire has no boot, but has the yellow stripe on the wire. I'm going to connect the terminal (front most) with the yellow stripe to negative and the terminal (short wire) with the black boot to positive. **crosses fingers and hope its correct**

TRACE THE WIRES BACK!

Don't guess and don't automatically think wire colors makes it right!

The + side goes to the fuse box and the starter.
The + side is also a double wire: one goes to the starter and one goes to the fuse box to the alternator.

The - side goes to a crimp at the base of the strut tower as a ground.
The - side is a single wire!


-Ted

You're the man Ted!

I traced the wires as stated and installed the battery. Tested it and all the lights work fine. :) Looks like I don't have to replace my driver side harness.

Also, one other quick questions. Is my starter dead since it didn't crank? Or is it normal to not crank at all when the whole passenger (engine) side harness is removed?

The main engine harness that connects the fuel injectors and major engine sensors?
No, that should not interfere with the starter circuit. :(


-Ted