NEED ELECTRICAL HELP BAD.

[86TransAm350]

this had to be the weirdest experience of my life with that car....the old alt and battery ran together electrically it just didnt charge that battery good.....that was yesterday...today i get the new alt at auto zone...and they test it 15 volts....fine.....bring it home gettin ready to hook it up didnt know the neg terminal to the battery was still on the alt red wire hit the manifold and sparked i was like OH damn....pulled the neg term off.....hooked up the alt....go to start the car NOTHING....no lights no gauges nothing....so i thought it was the battery when i tried to jump it was frying the other cars battery....like almost lightin on fire changed back to the old battery...did the same thing...when i was puttin the new one back in i accidently ripped of the negative battery terminal...on the wire...so i was tryin to put that back on....and mind you the postive is not connected at all....so the wire accidently hit the neg connection....sparked and i was like damn......so i dont konw what the heck is up.....anyone have any idea
im new to this world so please help
thanks

[N20LT4Bird]

You probably fried a fusible link (and hopefully not the ECM). If someone else has a pic of a fusible link, that would be helpful. They look like a regular wire with a larger dia. cylindrical section. Works like a fuse. If the wire gets too hot, it burns out the fusible link and not something important. Check the wires down by the starter; and give the fusibe links a tug and check them with an Ohm meter for resistance. If one breaks when you tug on it (not like Conan) or the ohm meter says "out of limit" when you test across it, its bad. On the third gens, I wanna say thats the only location for fusible links, but I am not sure. One of the third gen guys could probably help you more.

A burnt fusible link doesnt really explain your inability to try and jump start, that sounds like a dead short, so there may be more of a problem here as well. How long was the hot wire arcing on the manifold???

[Mark B]

I think that you hit the nail on the head with the fuseable link thing. When I had my 91 RS Convertable I grounded something out and then the car wouldnt do anything. When I put the key in, the gauges didnt even light up. The car was completly dead. It ended up being a fuseable link near the starter.

[86TransAm350]

probably hit twice cause my freind hit it earlier.....so accumulative about 3-5 seconds at differnt times......
i changed the fusible link to the battery....that sits right next to it...that looked kinda old and burnt but ill look for the one by the starter i guess