Small Block & Big Block Chevy Specific - SBC Problem

I know this isnt an LS1 engine, but looking for some input. I have a 305 in a 1933 Ford. My battery was old and weak, but still hanging on. I havnt started the car in months. I checked the battery connections and I had a loose terminal on the ground wire. I ended up having to replace both negative and positive terminals. I got the car turning over and I killed the battery trying to start it.

I put the battery charger on and it seemed to draw power from the battery instead of charge it

I bought a new battery

I connected the positive and then when I put the negative on it sparked. Once the connection was good, smoke started pouring from the hood. I took the negative off and found the wire from the alternator to the starter was melted to the point that the wire was seperated from the insulation. No other wires seemed damaged.

WTF happened with this new battery??

I have a suspicion the battery charger took a shit and did something in there, but does anybody have any ideas? I can only think that the charger messed up a diode in the alt.

I think you may have crossed up the pos and neg, or when you canged terminals you may hooked the charge wire to the neg and grounded it out.....

Maybe you have the positive cable grounding out?

That is one thing I am positive of, The wires are as they should be -to- and + to +

Something grounded out, make sure you install a fusable link when you rewire it. That will save you from having to replace all the wiring if it happens again.....

yup its a short to ground some where. check all areas where a hot part(i.e. exhaust, head) some where that cut your circuit short. That let your electrons go from pos. to neg. way to fast(too much amperage) and smoked the lead plates in the battery so that they do not create the chemical electon imbalance that is needed to provide 12.6V DC. Thats my diagnosis

Why do you have a wire going from the alternator to the starter? If it were me, I would redo that. Run a positive from the battery to the starter. Run the charge wire from the alternator to the positive on the battery. Ground the battery to the frame. Ground the engine to the frame. Also run a ground from the starter case to the frame.

You can never have to many grounds. Unless it starts looking like a spider web....

I see no issue with the charge wire going from the alt to the starter, and no reason to change it. It makes it much cleaner looking, I do my stuff the same way as I HATE to see wires hanging like pasta.