Dead short across battery, what died?

[Tantrum]

...Greetings everyone, I hope this hasn't been posted before but I couldn't find it in the searches... I was running a nitrous line (steel) under the hood and accidentally layed it carelessly on the + side of the battery and left it there for every bit of 2 mins.!!! (DUUUUH!!!) Now the car won't run I know that I should've had it capped or just disconnected the negative post but I wasn't thinking....No spark at the plugs anymore... What's all the damage that could be done from this ehem, mistake??? 1990 gst by the way.

 

[weith1111]

Check your fuses bud.

 

[FORMONTOYA]

If everything is up to speed on the car.....planets aligned properly and all that good stuff....more than likely you just blew the main 100amp (or whatever size is on a 1G) fuse.

http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/1G/relaybox.htm

Top right picture, top right fuse...100A ALT. If it is this one....it actually bolts on (10mm socket - 2G) on a 2G, I suspect it's the same for a 1g. Check all the fuses.

 

[Tantrum]

...Thanks-a-million!! I'll go and check pronto...

 

[blackbyrd]

It's an 80amp
and yes a 10mm socket.

EDIT:
WTH is that picture from.. All the 1g's I've seen/worked on were 80amps...
Maybe a canadian model sence they have 90amp alts, not 75?

 

[Tantrum]

...Uh ooooh...The dude that had the car before me has that fuses' spot straight wired!!! Uuuurgh!!! That !!! Anyway, does anyone know what would blow after that fuse?? Possibly the ALT relay maybe?? I swear I'll disconnect that battery everytime (from now on) when I tangle with crap under the hood!!! Hey could it have blown the ECU?? I know that a "fishy" smell in it means the caps could be leaking but would a steel line touching the + terminal of the battery to the cars body short the ECU???

 

[FORMONTOYA]

Damn, that sucks.

I'm a firm believer that people turn cars into a POS, then when they're done they'll sell it to some unsuspecting/inexperience person to unload their problems.

Of course the whole reason for fuses is to have something in line to protect the wiring and components, without them in place you're kind of screwed. At this point it comes down to how well you can trace circuits. First off, get the fuse situation fixed so you're protected from now on. Then of course the easiest thing is to check the main fuses....MPI and Ignition. If you know someone with an ECU you can swap, try it. Then start "pinging" wires.

Sorry to say.....it could be just about anywhere.

If you have to start tracing circuits, your best bet is to get a manual.


This would be the best one to get.....
http://www.ecanfix.com/~manualcd/index2.htm

 

[Tantrum]

thanks dude...

 

[Terrh]

I would think that if what happened was EXACTLY as you described (dead short across the battery only) that nothing would happen to damage ANYTHING but the battery.

If the dead short was from the + terminal to the body, it's possible (nay, probable) that some of the battery grounds from battery to body were damaged. If it was from the + terminal to the engine, I could see all of the engine grounds being damaged, and possibly at that point ECU grounds and the alternator diode as well.

I dead shorted a battery accidentially yesterday (with jumper cables, 2 on the good battery and the other ends were touching eachother) - but luckily didn't do any damage to anything, and the battery was fine after a quick charge.

What were your mainfuses wired with?

If somehow the power went through there, my bet is that it went through the alternator diode first and damaged that. It's also possible that you damaged the ignition switch or the ECU.

Grab your voltmeter and start testing!

 

[Tantrum]

Geeesh....Thanks dude ... I just put the cars engine together with new everything and axles and all...Now it'll take a miracle to find the short... Mechanically I'm a beast but electrically/electronically I'm a babe ....Oh the fuse (ALT) was bridged with some weird type of scrap piece of thin metal. Why?

 

[Terrh]

I have NO idea why someone would want to do that, well actually I do... their MAIN fuse kept blowing and they were too lazy to figure out what was wrong.

thin pieces of scrap metal probably can't reliably carry more than 100A before they self destruct - have you replaced the MAIN fuse yet with a real one yet?