ok, so just had new engine put in, belts, hoses, new plugs, a/c recharge, etc etc. All was going well for 4 days. running an driving fine. Except wiper moter which was damaged by either engine going out or in on the firewall. Had fixed day 2. Day 4 I Turned a corner and a flash of all dash lights like at start up happened. But that was it. Then next day after several errands and several start ups and stops while going down interstate it just died like battery went dead. So took out old battery, tested bad. it was old anyway. Got new one. screwed in and got maybe 3 miles and started to just about cut out several times and didnt. was just trying to get home. didnt make it. died about 15 miles from where i changed battery. Lifted hood to find positive cable screw off new battery literally melted away from battery. Sauder looking stuff dripping down. It was a wow moment. Called for a tow. Once home when removing the new battery Found neg side melted to the battery. Had to pry apart. So now I have two cables to replace+ and - and luckly was able to get battery replaced from parts store. But now I have to find the cause. I have never seen a battery do this before. If I'd have had duct tape I could have likely kept it running to get it home at least by taping the positive side touching battery. Battery might have exploded but maybe not. Anyways all that said any ideas where to start to figure this one out? ANYONE? Thank goodnes for road side assistance towing on insurance with this truck. Oh BTW its a chevy s10 pickup 1998 2.2 4 cyl.

 

Wow, you're lucky it didn't start a fire with it running enough amps to melt battery screws. It would seem there is a short somewhere directly between the pos and neg terminals of the batt. Probably on a large wire for it to hold up to the amperage, so probably the alternator wire or starter wire would be my guess. Anything else would have melted the wire before the terminals.

 

I agree with above statement...^^^ I think once you replace the main cables including the. One to the alternator you should have no other issues... before hooking up terminals permanently try hooking up an inline fuse on one side of the battery terminals and make it at least a 20 to 30 amp fuse so that it does trip before there's damage to the cables or other components. As stated above, you may have had a few bare points on the main cables somewhere...probably very near where everything got cooked.

 

make sure you have a ground strap from the engine block to the frame

 

GOT FIXED! The battery cable got loose when we changed the battery out and was arking . Simple fix. Thank goodness.

 

Thanks for updating us! It will be helpful to others!!