it started......

But I accidentally hooked up the battery wrong. I put negative to positive and vice verse. I didn't start the car while it was like this - but I've heard it can mess up a lot of things. My charging system is messed up now. Would it be the alternator - or could it possibly be a fuse or something that has blown (hoping for the latter)?
I have previously posted the thread "won't start", but started a new one in lieu of this new development.
I actually have a 1988 town car... not a 83.....
help me please.... I'm just a girl who has not a clue what she's doing....

There are some fuseable links in the starter wiring that you might have burned when the battery was hooked up incorrectly. This will involve replacing some of the wiring harness down by the starter. What exactly is it doing now? What are the symptoms? Now that you have the battery hooked up right. Does everything power up, starter turn the engine over? You might have gotten lucky and didn't burn the fuseable links if all this still works.

Yeah - the car still starts up and runs. I actually drove it up to the auto parts store for them to test my alternator and they said my charging system was messed up. They said they couldn't check only the alternator without taking it out first - so they couldn't pin point what part of the system was messed up.

Well sounds like you got lucky and didn't burn out any fuseable links. On an 88 Town car the charging system is the alternator. I don't believe there is a separate voltage regulator, it's in the alternator. The alternator is probably what the problem is. The auto parts store should have some one who knows how to use a simple voltage meter, to see if the alternator is putting voltage out to the battery. You check that right at the battery posts. The battery should be around 12 volts with nothing on. Then start the car, if the alternator is working the voltage should go up to about 14 volts. If it starts dropping from 12 volts the alternator is not charging, assuming all the wiring is ok. It's always good to remove the alternator and have the parts store double check it on their machine when in doubt. Don't go to that Murray's auto parts store in Walled Lake, they've always had a bunch of morons working there.

It turned out to be the alternator - and it's all fixed now. Thank you for your help!

Good deal