I hooked up my battery wrong one night, and I want to know what is broken.. A guy at AutoZone told me the ECC was fried, another told me the starter(the starter is fine)... I'm also thinking it could be the solenoid... Any help would be appreciated..


I know I'm retarded for hooking it up wrong, but it happened.

 

well the solenoid isnt that bad to replace i dont think, and it's good to do every now and then from what i hear ( if we're thinking the same thing) so try that and see if it's fixed.
bright side:
you have now answered the question ' what would happen if i put red to black and black to red? ' that we have all asked at one point in time

 

What don't work ... One of the items that probably got fried is the alternator.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

wwhat he said, whats it doing? No crank, cranks wont start? What engine? carb or efi?

 

I installed a new starter solenoid, replaces a wire that runs off of the solenoid, and I replaced the starter cable.. When I turn the key, the dash will light up, and the lights will come on. But it won't turn over, no click, nothing... I'm out of ideas, any clue to what it is would be greatly appreciated.

5.8L 351W H.O - carb

 

take a test light and check all of your fuseable links at the solinoid. if your lucky they blew before the surge went any farther

 

I checked all of them, replaced one link, and the other lit up, so I didn't change it.

 

what if you jump power to the small terminal on the starter relay?

 

I haven't tried it yet, my truck is ways away from me, or I'd do it right now, I was planning on doing this next, because I saw a picture of it in another thread.

If I jump power, and it cranks, what is wrong?

 

check and make sure you have the wires on the right posts on the solinoid, common mistake, got my last truck cheep because someone had it hooked up wrong, spent a bunch of money, then gave up. also make sure your main ground wire diddn't fry off at the block, that would let your lights come on, but won't allow enough amps to turn over the starter

 

Alright I'll check both tomorrow. If the truck didn't have sentimental value I'm sure I would've sold it by now because of how much it has pissed me off.


I'll post tomorrow what happens, and I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me.

 

any updates on this? Still interested to know what hooking up the cables backward will do.

 

Since you changed the fuse links already, just treat it like a "will not crank" situation.

There is no reason that the solenoid would fail for hooking up the battery backward. If the solenoid is not engaged, the cable just goes to a contact in the solenoid, which is doing nothing and touches nothing until it is engaged.

Someone mentioned the alternator. It is correct that the alternator could be damaged. The diodes may have burned up if there were a huge reverse current from hooking up the battery backwards. But, this would not cause the "no crank" situation.

Check all the battery and ground cable terminals. Clean them all so that they are bright metal, apply a little grease and reinstall them. Don't forget to do the chassis to engine cable.

You have battery to solenoid, that's one. Then the solenoid to starter, that's two. The battery to ground, that's three. And the engine to the truck frame, that's four. So you have eight connections to clean and tighten. You can't tell if they are bad by just looking, so do them all.

Test the battery voltage. It should be 12.5 volts minimum just sitting. If not, charge it up before you do anything else. The battery could possibly have failed entirely, but maybe not. So make sure it's good before proceeding.

If the battery is OK and fully charged, after doing all that it should crank. Try it.

Post up your results.

 

I jumped the solenoid today, and after spraying some carb cleaner in the carb it started, but stalled immediately, after checking a bit, the diaphram on the carb is blown so that's why it won't stay started. It still won't start from the key, I'm going to check the ignition module in the next few days. I also ran a new ground wire.

All the cables are new, I replaced the ground, battery and the starter cable. And I changed the fusable links on the other wires.

 

have you checked the ignition inside your truck? The key switch?