I just finished installing my starter. Before I did anything I removed the negative battery terminal. Once I was finished with the job, I tried putting the negative terminal back in and it starts sparking right when it touches the battery. The sparking is continuous if I leave it on the battery and there's nothing else I can do but leave it off. Can someone please help me or give me some sort of feedback on how I can go about this? please please please

 

Some small sparking is normal when reconnecting it back. If it continues afterwards you most likely have bad contact on the post- clean it and the wire terminal with sand paper, put it back and tighten the nut. If the sparking is excessive (with smoke, heat, etc) you might have a short somewhere and you better fix that first but I doubt it's your case.

 

It does start to smoke if I keep it there for a long time. The sparking is serious, not just little sparks. I can't even put the nut on the battery without having fireworks under my hood.

 

This is a George-esque post LOL

Redo the power wire. You obviously have it really cocked or something and it's grounding out.

 

Don't keep it there or you'll kill your battery and do what the other poster ^^^ suggested, seems you pinched power wire while replacing starter. By 'killing' I really mean it, not just draining- batteries don't tolerate shorts very well.

 

Which is the power wire?

 

Thanks. I was kinda scared cause I thought my maxima was gonna blow up lol. What do you guys mean by the power wire?

 

Most definitely could be this. A loose connection or a short could definitely cause problems. I had a loose grounding wire on one of my amps and that caused sparks to fly like crazy.

 

Sounds like you crossed the streams (positive touching negative). Never cross the streams.

 

Follow the negative wire it should go to ground on the engine! The positive should go to the starter!

 

The negative wire should go to the engine already cause i haven't messed with that. I think my problem is the positive cable. I'm going to re check that today when I get home

 

It is your positive wire, sorry for not being clear. Please recheck +12 wires around the starter you just replaced. I bet one of them got between starter and the body, you didn't notice, tightened up and pinched the insulation effectively grounding the wire. Please do not connect negative wire back to the battery until you find the problem. If you still feel a need to do that use 12+ watt automobile lamp in series with your negative cable- if it lits up you still have a short if not - you found it.

The lamp will limit the current passing through it to the level it is rated for saving your battery and providing indicator if the problem still exists. Normal leak current of the car is in mA range and it is way not enough to lit up the lamp of that wattage.

 

I have seen it where the terminal was shorting on the inside of the starter before, but it was loose and used one.

 

Mine seems loose too? Like I can move the terminal easily on the starter

 

No good

 

Well, maybe I was too judgmental on my 1st post lol

 

You literally saved my life. Thank you so much. I swapped the starters and it worked!! Thank you!!! (:

 

NP, sorry I was being a ****