Battery jumped in reverse: where to look for problems?

Ereinion · Mar 20, 2019

I own a 1994 3.8L Ford Mustang, manual transmission. Recently replaced my red positive battery cable with a new black cable. I left my lights on today and ran the battery dead. I have a battery jump starter, but like a moron I connected the cables backwards due to the black positive cable.

There was a lot of smoke and the battery jump starter fried. My problem now is that even while jump starting correctly off a running vehicle, if I try to turn the ignition I get nothing.

The very first time I turned the key on the correct jump, I got a single click. After that first click, there is absolutely nothing, even after letting the battery charge for several minutes. I'm not getting any power to the windows, lights, hood release, etc. The fuel pump is not priming either.

So far I haven't been able to find any fuses that went out, but am not sure where to look besides the engine compartment fuse block where the larger fuses are.

I feel like a complete idiot for doing this, and hope I haven't majorly damaged the car. Just put in a new alternator 3 days ago, too. :-(

ttocs · Mar 20, 2019

start simple and check all your fuses under the dash and under the hood. After that you will need to check the fusable links.

PinkieT · Mar 20, 2019

Is the car battery fully charged? Check that too. We had some batteries that showed 12.4 volts but cranking amps were only in the double digits, so a battery with good voltage may still be bad. If you don't have a good tester, you should be able to take it to your local garage or parts store who can put a good charge on it and test the battery cranking amps.