'86 Suburban electrical catastrophy

[Hocks]

My wife left the headlights on the other night and drained the battery. When I tried connecting jumper cables the next morning, the fusable link at the firewall terminal block under the hood fried. I don't think I hooked the cables up backwards but ..... alas, its possible (oh the shame). Anyway, I disconnected the battery and recharged it overnight.

The power feed wire from the started comes to the firewall terminal block and the fusable link splits off to two wires to power the main fuse panel under the dash as well as connecting to the alternator "bat" terminal.

I checked all the fuses and they were OK. Then, I tested for dead shorts and didn't find any so I re-attached the wire from the terminal to the fuse box. The circuits energized and the engine cranked over but didn't start. Most of the accessories work fine, but the gagues don't activate when I turn on the ignition key. I checked for power at the distributor and the red wire was energized but the brown wire seemed to only light the test lamp very dimly.

When I try to re-attach the wire from the altarnator BAT terminal, I get huge sparks. So, I brought the alternator back to Kragens (its only a couple years old) and they replaced it for free. But, the new alternator does the same thing.

I'm totally confused now. Obviously, something is seriously wrong but I have no idea how to find out what it is. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated. Plus, if you want to degrade me for possibly hooking the jumper cables up wrong I suppose I deserve that too.

Thanks,
Hocks

[Hocks]

The problem was once completely discharged, the battery reversed its polarity. Apparently I must have hooked up either the jumper cables or the battery charger backwards .... dohhhhh.

Anyway, discharging it and regharging it correctly fixed the problem.

However ..... I may have blown out some electronics equipment like the alarm and stereo head unit.

Oh well, lesson learned.

Hocks