I was driving my '89 22RE during the daytime and came to a stop sign. While pushing off from the line, I accidentally stalled the motor and quickly restarted it. After a second or two, it just died -- total power loss, and all the lights went out.

As I was pushing it to the side of the road, I saw smoke coming from under the hood. This is what I saw when I opened it up:



I'm just lucky I didn't have a fire!

The positive terminal bracket snapped off and must have begun arc-welding itself while I cranked the starter, resulting in the molten metal you see next to the positive terminal. Additionally, the smoke was coming from the black electrical tape that had melted itself onto my power steering pump. The positive cable had corroded so badly at that point that the 100+ Amps of starting current just melted it.

Here's where I am stuck:
I found this battery cable for sale at Autozone. The positive lead going to the main fuse box ends in a round clip, which is designed to be fastened to the dipole terminal with a standard bolt & nut. How am I going to connect it with this extra wire coming out of the positive terminal? Or should I return this and go to a junk yard? I have about a week to get this fixed.

Thanks!

 

:wabbit2: Go get a cable that has lugs on both ends get a new Marine battery terminal that way you can connect all your fusible links etc. While your at it may as well Change the ground cables as well.

If one looks at these things like battery terminals hoses and belts you don`t have this kind of excitement

You might want to tell us where you are..

 

I am in Los Angeles.

The fusible link has a ring terminal, and it's still intact. All the big fuses were unbroken. Is there any reason why I can't just slide the ring terminal onto the battery cable bolt and fasten it that way instead of using the smaller, auxiliary cable?