Did I fry the electrical system?

[kirby42]

I wanted to turn the engine of my 2000 alpha one merc over a few times as I haven't used it for a few months, so I am hooking up the battery,( with the ignition off) , 1st the neg terminal, black wires, and when I attach the red pos.
clamp I see a pretty good spark. Nothing happens when I try the starter switch and no juice anywhere. No hone,
bilgePump, nothing. I checked all the fuses under the dash, all good. What fuse did I miss and why might it have blow
It? Thanks, Kirby

 

[Don S]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

There should be a square fuse on the starter terminal that may have blown, there should also be a circuit breaker on the engine.
What engine do you have? 3.0L, 8.1L Carbed-EFI ??????

 

[achris]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

2 places to check. The circuit breaker on the engine (big red button) and the line fuse at the starter, it looks like just a terminal, but it's a 90A fuse. Time the break out the multimeter...

Edit: Oracle beat me by 1 minute!!!..... That will teach me...

 

[kirby42]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

It's an alpha one, 2000,3L. What blew the fuses?

 

[Bondo]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

It's an alpha one, 2000,3L. What blew the fuses?

attach the red pos.
clamp I see a pretty good spark.

Ayuh,... Sounds like a substantial load was left On, or something is shorted out....

 

[kirby42]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

Thanks, gents. I'll check it out this weekend. Kirby

 

[stonyloam]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

1st the neg terminal, black wires, and when I attach the red pos.
clamp

Just a FYI, from a safety standpoint you should always hook up the positive battery cable first, and remove the negative (ground) cable before the positive. For example the ground is in place and you are tightening the positive cable with a wrench and the wrench touches metal you can complete the circuit, big spark, and bad burn. If you did the same while attaching the the ground, nothing would happen.

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

Just a FYI, from a safety standpoint you should always hook up the positive battery cable first, and remove the negative (ground) cable before the positive. For example the ground is in place and you are tightening the positive cable with a wrench and the wrench touches metal you can complete the circuit, big spark, and bad burn. If you did the same while attaching the the ground, nothing would happen.

Or you could drop the wrench on the battery to that it touches both terminals and really watch the sparks fly!

 

[r.j.dawg]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

Something they taught me at little mechanics school when I joined the Air Force. Red before Black, then you can stand back. Black before Red, you could end up dead.

 

[kirby42]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

Ok, turns out that I blew the 90 amp fuse on the starter. Not when I turned the key mind you, but when I hooked up the battery. Everything I could check in in the off position. Any suggestions before I spend $30 and then blow another one ? Thanks, Kirby

 

[stonyloam]

Re: Did I fry the electrical system?

If you blew the 90 amp fuse, you had a short to ground somewhere. Now any of the smaller wires would have shown significant damage from heating if that much current was flowing through them, so the logical place to start looking is the large starter terminal. Remove the wires from the terminal and with your voltmeter set to ohms read between the terminal and ground, should read infinity, if not your starter is probably the problem. Let us know what you get.