Hi all! Im sort of new to this whole thing but here it goes, I have a 1987 subaru gl base with the stock EA82 engine in it. Im 16 and I certainly dont know all that much about cars so Im not sure what could be going on but ill try to explain, I had removed the battery and when I went to put it back in I placed the positive wire to the positive terminal and the black box thats mounted to the coolant tank popped and start to smoke. All three wires that were in it blew in half and now when I go to start it nothing happens. The battery was in correctly im not that naive but im not sure what I need to do. Any suggestions?

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by Logan Robinett

Well sounds to me like you have a dead short in the system somewhere,  start at where the wired and such got hot and replace as necessary.

By the Way i used to live in lake Stevens some 25 years ago out on the Granite Falls Hwy across from 113th  That was my race car shop  up on the little hill and I had a Trailer house there to live in. Build about a 100 race cars out of the shop, mostly Mustangs, them were the good ole days.

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by Fish-N-Fool

The wires in that Black box are fusible links, made to protect the wiring in the car.

 

Definitely have some wiring issues if all of them popped. I would carefully and fully inspect all of the wiring.

 

Wouldn't surprise me any if a mouse hasn't chewed on part of the harness. 

Any suggestions as to where the short might be?

Just a wild guess, but on the driver side where the fuse box is, there is a LOT of heavy wires, power distribution.  i would be a decent place for a mouse to make a nest.   They usually go for the HVAC system though, and cleaning that out is NO fun.  The harness from the fusible link box is mostly visible under the hood, so you can check that fairly easily.

Ive looked at it more and it is only the far rear fusible link that blows. It has a big white wire coming out the bottom of the box where the fuse is. Any idea what that might be?

Edited December 26, 201411 yr by Logan Robinett

I that one is the alternator main feed, ignition switch main feed.  The output of the alternator may be shorted.

 

Disconnect the battery.  Connect an ohm meter to the white wire & ground of the car.  I expect it to show a very low number of ohms.  Unhook the white wire from the alternator.  If the ohm meter reading changes significantly, that may be the problem.  If not, pull fuses, dissconnect harness connectors.  See if you can find something that changes the reading.

I tried that and everything read .1 

I don't see anywhere in previous posts where you used an ohm meter to test to locate the short circuit...  To use an ohm meter, you have to disconnect the battery.

Gosh guys im so dumb. I just assumed black was negative and red was positive and hooked up the battery that way. I couldn't find what was wrong so I just said screw it and flipped the battery around and the thing started right up   thanks for the suggestions though I appreciate it:)

Make sure your alternator is actually charging the battery.

I did:) now if only it would idle  it hasn't since I got it. It drives fine but if I stop giving it gas it chokes and dies