Arg! Electrical Problems

[Jess]

Howdy folks, I'm having some electrical problems in my 89 MJ 4L and I'm hoping some of you guys might have some ideas...

 

It started when I got sick of my battery dying, which would happen on occasion when I would forget to turn off my stereo since it's not on a switched circuit for whatever reason.

 

Anyway, I noticed a spark when attaching the positive terminal to the battery after charging it. Using a meter I discovered there is a direct short between the neg and positive battery connectors. I pulled fuses one by one and that didn't fix it. I then took the nut off of that little box thing near the battery and started reading those eyelets one by one until I found a direct short between the Alternator wire and ground. I checked for a short between the wires to see if the wire melted or something, nothing, so I took the alternator out and found it was directly shorting to ground. 

 

I replaced the alternator, wired it in, and checked to make sure it wasn't grounding to the negative terminal again - it wasn't... Good to go I thought!! So I buttoned everything back together, put in all the fuses, connected the negative terminal and when I touched the positive, sparks again. 

 

So I started troubleshooting again and discovered that my subwoofer has a short on it. I found another short on one of the older wires connected to that little box thing, its the eyelet that splits. I know that's not very descriptive but it's all I have at the moment and it's the only wire that splits on that terminal. I found the 25a fuse that (at least half of) that wire runs through. Unfortunately, I had to rewire some of my fuses into a new fuse box (due to the CMC drip corrosion) and of course, it's the one fuse not labeled.

 

I then (by accident) metered the wire that runs to my brand new Alternator and discovered that it's grounding again! I hope I didn't fry it when I put all the fuses back in.

 

One other question I have is, what is this thing? (in the red square) I called it "that little box thing" which I'm pretty sure isn't the official name. Should I be reading to ground from some of these wires? One half of the positive terminal is connected to it so I have assumed not. Maybe this is all normal and my battery just died one to many times. 

 

Any help would be much appreciated, my trucks been out of commission for like a week because of this and my battery dying - it's starting to get frustrating. 

 

 

[1989 Eliminator]

Sounds like a lot of shorting! But my biggest suggestion for you to do is to upgrade your grounds. Crusier54 has written a topic on this. Check it out and this should help you out. 

 

http://comancheclub.com/topic/36311-updated-renix-grounds/?do=findComment&comment=363512

[Jess]

Thanks! If I'm understanding that post correctly, the "little box thing" is a grounding post? So I should be reading to ground from it? I haven't had a chance to go out and investigate my truck but what that article talks about sure sounds like my little box thing.

[1989 Eliminator]

I cannot see your image so I am not clear of what the positive cable is connected to. Try saving your image onto a google account or photobucket and copy the image url, then use the image button in the reply options on top, underneath the similes. 

[Jess]

Oh crap. I actually put it up on my Drive account first and couldn't get it to post inline so I put it on my Dropbox where it is showing in my post above. It's shared publicly but I guess it's only showing it to me because I'm logged in. Sorry about that. Here's a link to it on my Drive:

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwTuZs0NEH5iRVNZNGpsQnE3WWs/edit?usp=sharing

[88whitemanche]

That's the starter relay iirc

[Jess]

Thanks 88whitemanche, looks like your right. So I'm assuming I shouldn't be reading to ground from the relay?