Big mistake... swapped battery terminals! Needless to say, lots of things not working

[Taiden]

Alright, long story short, I had to move my 240 in a pinch and the battery was past its life. I pulled the stock one out of my Geo Prizm and threw it in. Without thinking I hooked up the battery terminals, which made a pop and that was it. I didn't think much of it until I turned the key and realized nothing was working in the car. I pulled the battery out and realized that the positive and negative terminals are different on the Prizm battery than the 240sx battery.

I have no idea how I never noticed different batteries have completely different layouts. I just assumed the only difference between models was amps/CCA and physical size.

Anyway, I checked fuse. 75A fuse popped as well as AUDIO and REVERSE LIGHTS. Replaced all but the 75A fuse... which i hope to do tomorrow.


Works:

Car starts and runs
Lights turn on
All blinkers work

Doesn't work:

Headlight motors
Inside lights
Head unit
Gauge cluster



sooooooo. I dont think that 75A fuse is a main fuse for all that shit so anyone got ideas? First time working with the 240sx electrical system. The B13s didn't even have a main fuse like that...

[T00ch]

your head unit cluster auto seat belts and dome light are all one from one fuse its like 15 amps or some thing. go to your fuse box by your brake pedal and its the last row of fuses i believe all the way to the right

[oneviaman]

that 75 amper is the main ignition fuse. that sucker runs alot of stuff.

[jskateborders]

your lucky your fuses caught it. I let my jumper caples peck and CAS gone...

[g6civcx]

Start by checking all of your fusible links and fuses in the both underhood fusebox and underdash fusebox.

You also want to do a quick visual check of all your relays in the underhood fusebox, both underhood relay box, as well as the underdash fusebox. You should really pull and check each relay, but that takes a lot of work and you may not want to do that.

Do a quick visual check of all your wiring. See if anything has melted. Check all your grounding points.

Just hope that you didn't fry any electronics other than the fusible links. Fix those first and then go on from there.

[Andrew Bohan]

glad you don't have the nightmare of swapping chassis harnesses because of it

sucks you can cause so much damage so easily :ghey:

[HasteBryant]

its your 75amp fusible link that runs everything thats not working in your car right now. replace it and you'll be fine. check all other fusible links as well.

[Taiden]

Oh man I am so glad to hear this news. I was very skeptical of the 75A fuse running several things. I assumed its only function was to cut the alternator out of the circuit just in case of an alternator short.

I will replace this fuse hopefully tomorrow and get back to you guys! I was so impressed that the car started and ran but all these other weird things didn't work.

[slideways2004]

you got lucky on this one. replace the 75a fuse and then see what happens.

[projectRDM]

You've obviously never opened an FSM. Sad.

The fuses in the car are set up in order of current, the largest one handles the most current and then so on. Blowing the 75A fusible link saves everything past it.

Welcome to common vehicle electrical systems.

[NiSmOKnIghTsRBS14]

Oh man I am so glad to hear this news. I was very skeptical of the 75A fuse running several things. I assumed its only function was to cut the alternator out of the circuit just in case of an alternator short.

I will replace this fuse hopefully tomorrow and get back to you guys! I was so impressed that the car started and ran but all these other weird things didn't work.

lol i did the same thing.........

S13 or S14???..........

On my S14 it was the 100 amp fuse. its bolted down. u killed that one

lmk if u need pics ill show u...........

[RedStage]

sucks, but hopefully all will be alright. chalk it up to lesson learnt the hard way and double check next time. Good luck :)

[Taiden]

You've obviously never opened an FSM. Sad.

The fuses in the car are set up in order of current, the largest one handles the most current and then so on. Blowing the 75A fusible link saves everything past it.

Welcome to common vehicle electrical systems.

Thank you for your help in this matter. I'm not going to sit here and debate my credibility and experience. :mrmeph:


NismoKnightRBS14: It was an S13. I have the fuse in my pocket, but no one locally stocks that part! :tweak:

I know for sure I won't be swapping battery terminals anytime soon. What a thing to do... :jerkit: I haven't really done much work on any car for the last 6-9 months except for the brakes on my 240. Gettin rusty and careless, need to get my head back in the game. :hsdance:

[rlpinoy]

change the 75amp fuse and see if that works. if not might be somewhere else. happened to me and ended up being my ignitor chip. have someone with the same car help you out and swap parts to check if its not your fuse. GL ps it happens to everyone one time or another. that why i went to the junkyard and jacked all those 75 amp fuses :O)

[HasteBryant]

local stores dont have that 75 amp fusible link, more than likely they have to order it. just get oem you need to get it from nissan or junk yard. its like 8 bucks or so.

[Taiden]

Update: Fuse replaced and all is good. It seems nothing is wrong with the car. In fact, before the accident the Cruise Control did not work... After the accident, it does... Before the accident there were no blown fuses, I checked fuses when I saw the cruise was not operating. I don't know why my cruise control is working now, but who cares? :drool:

THanks for the kind words everyone.

[rockmafb06]

I see that this has been dead for a while, and I started a new thread but I thought this was worth a try as well. I did the same thing today and and was only able to find a 60 amp fuse. I put that in and the car will turn over and I can smell the fuel but the car will not fire. Any ideas what else might be causing this?? Thanks for any help.

I have a 91 hatchback with a redtop swap.