As the last hurdle in getting SRL311-07278 back on the road, we needed a
new battery. So my father and I drove down to the Autozone and lo and
behold, they carried a battery that met the stock SRL311 specs. We left
them the old battery, seeing as it wouldn't hold a charge worth a damn.
Got back to the garage and put the new battery in--it was exactly the same
size, etc. as the old one. I hooked up the positive battery lead first, no
problem. But when I hooked up the negative battery lead, smoke immediately
started pouring out from under the driver's side dash. I quickly unhooked
the battery and inspected. One of the wires into the ignition switch tried
to fry itself--it was still intact, but the insulation had started to melt.
The smoking wire was not stock--some sort of "Bubba" wiring spliced into
one of the stock ignition wires and fed back to the starter. Anyway,
seeing as I hate electrical work and am horrible at it, I asked my mechanic
(who only works on my cars when I've given up on a particular
problem--which is too often, IMHO) to come a look at it. He came by the
next evening and we looked at all the wiring. He told me that I must have
a short and that I'd have to trace all the wires to find it.
As he was looking at all of the other things I'd done to the car since he'd
last seen it (new front brakes, rotors--cross-drilled/slotted, master
cylinder, wheels, chrome, etc.) he said, "Alex, I know what your problem
is." "What is it!" I asked. "You hooked the battery up backwards!"
Doh! I hate to admit it, but because the new battery was the same size,
etc. as the old battery, I hadn't paid any attention to the location of the
(+) and (-) batttery terminals. I assumed they were the same, when they
were actually reversed. Boy did I feel and look stupid to my mechanic.
His last words (as he walked off shaking his head) "Alex, stop messing your
cars up after I fix 'em."
Humbled, Alex Avery
SRL311-07278
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