j4roe21

First and foremost I'd like to say thank you to anyone that can help with my current situation. I have been an avid reader of this forum for years and am currently a member of a few other Toyota Tacoma forums as well.

A couple of days ago I bought a new Red Top Optima and installed it. The battery is the EXACT same battery that I pulled out however the poles are now on the back of the battery in it's correct orientation and not the front. I was not paying attention and hooked the battery up backwards. Needless to say, I smoked a MAIN FUSE. After doing some reading on here for a few nights I'm now at a crossroad.

Current status; I inspected the fusible link and it appears and feels as though it is fine (I was told that it would be slightly deformed or mushy if it had blown). I replaced the MAIN FUSE (80a) and hooked the battery back up. The truck started first crank just like normal. Only thing that did NOT come back on was the dash lights and aftermarket 7" in dash screen and car stereo amp under passenger seat (2 blown 20a fuses). Truck ran for 10 minutes, in between I turned it off and restarted it a few times with NO PROBLEM aside from the ones aforementioned.

I started the truck later and while in the drivers seat parked the gauges and all interior power died again. Popped hood and see that the MAIN FUSE has blown again. Shut the truck off.

Went and bought more MAIN FUSES to try again. This time a neighbor came out with his MULIT-METER and started probing around. Something he saw led him to believe that if we tried another MAIN FUSE as soon as we hook the battery up he said it was going to blow the fuse. We installed another MAIN FUSE and as soon as we hooked the battery up the MAIN FUSE blew again right away this time just as the neighbor predicted.

This is now currently where I'm at. I have searched this forum from top to bottom and read through almost all threads related to MAIN FUSE.

I want to ask the forum if anyone can steer me in the right direction before I decide this is beyond my knowledge base and take it to a AUTO ELECTRIC place and get bent over.

Could this have done damage to the alternator and or the brand new battery?

Batt still reading 12.4 volts...

THANK YOU YOTA TECH!!!!!!!!

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

Well what did he see that lead him?? to think the fuse would open ??

I would venture that might just be a problem.

You have a melted or burnt wire grounding.

Maybe some pictures would help

j4roe21

I'm horrible with electric so please forgive me but he was testing OHMS and continuity. I believe he was getting a tone somewhere in the slot that the Main Fuse goes into which lead him to believe that as soon as we put in the main fuse and connected the battery it was going to spark and blow immediately and that is what happened.

Is it possible to have done what you said above even though I've never had a bad ground whatsoever in the 7 years Ive owned this truck.

Obviously whatever is happening must be a direct connection to hooking the battery up backwards. I can take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

NOTE: The ground that comes off of the negative cable that attaches to the inner fender well inside the engine bay is in perfect condition. I did NOT check the ground that goes from the negative battery cable down the loom towards the bottom of the truck to the chassis ground.



Again, Thanks for your help!

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

No that is not what I meant .

From your little mishap one of the positive wires or even the fuse holder is melted or has some other damage that is allowing it to touch some place that is grounded.

Could be as simple as melted insulation allowing the wire to touch.

This causes your fuse to open if that does not happen the wires will conduct current till it melts and breaks or the battery is discharged.

j4roe21

That's kind of what I have been thinking.


I'm going to look a little further in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to post a few pics tomorrow.

Thanks Wyoming