Reversed battery terminals, smoke, and busted stereo

[Jeepoftheseus]

Hey everyone,

So my brother (who's an electrical engineer) and I were rushing to finish installing big 7 jeep cables and made a critical mistake. We put the battery in backwards.

Smoke rose up off of the harness that runs along the top of the firewall in the engine bay and a handful of fuses blew- and I mean from one end of it to the other. I'm amazed it didn't catch fire.

Surprisingly, despite the smoke, everything seems to work just fine except the aftermarket stereo.

Anyone who can help me get my head around what I have to do to fix this will be very helpful.

On the brightside the whole exercise taught me a lot of things about the jeep, like the presence of a jury-rigged alternator kill switch. Very cool stuff.

 

[jjvw]

Start by replacing the fuses and go from there.

You are living up to your screen name.

 

[Jeepoftheseus]

I fixed it! I took the stereo out today and found a blow fuse behind it. Stereo works fine now. I haven't identified any other electrical issues so far, but do yall think I need to worry much about the smoke that rose off the wiring harness?

 

[JustDandee]

In my early years I launched my truck with a unsecured battery. On the landing my battery came to a rest upon my exhaust manifold, began to melt and much excitement followed to get the battery unhooked while wires went up in smoke.

After a long walk and recovery, fixed what I could see and just drove it. I am not sure you are going to be able to thoroughly inspect everything…I would inspect what you can and drive it. The other option I can think of is to replace whole harness sections from a donor.

 

[macleanflood]

From what I've seen of TJ harnesses you'd be better off delooming at least the part that smoked if not the entire engine harness and checking wires. If the mistake didn't do something I'm sure you'll find something else to fix.

-Mac