Battery Help

I have a 1990 mazda miata. I store it for the winter and I forgot to unhook the battery. When trying to jump the battery, the charger was hooked up to the wrong receptacles on the battery - there was lots of smoking and sparks. Have I killed the battery and do I need to get a new battery? Have I done something else to the car such as blowing a fuse?

smoke usually means something melted. Which is usually a very bad thing.

HOPEFULLY its just a fusable link that melted.....otherwise, it very well could be one or more wires that melted in sections of the harness, and if thats the case, you usually end up replacing the entire harness. A fuse blowing won't smoke.

And yes, I'd recommend a battery (although thats the least of your worries right now)

mazda is pretty good about just popping the MAIN fuse. tll be in the fuse block under the hood on the passenger side i believe. there may be a few others that get popped, its hard to say which though. another battery is a good idea. the MAIN fuse bolts into the fuse block, so its a little more complicated than just pulling it out and installing another

With some luck you just fried a fusible link or more. A decent manual (local library reference section) should give you the locations.

Bob