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hey guys my battery is completely dead, so i went out and bought a new one... got the old battery out that was easy, problem putting the new battery in.... i couldn't remember which goes on first pos or neg regardless of how i tryed to put it on it sparked like crazy, so in short i couldn't get the terminals on... i know that if you put the terminals on in the right order it should be a cinch, but here's the dilema, could this sparking be a result of the fact that i have a capacitor in my trunk... if i'm not mistaken the capacitor stores power right, could this be the cause of the sparking? just wondering because my capacitor is tucked in where my spare tire used to be and my subs are bolted on, but if this is the cause then i guess i will have to go through the effort of unhooking everything. any advice or answers are much appreciated... i bought the battery from crappy tire it fits perfectly just too dangerous to even attempt to attach the terminals

 
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lol. with all that typing you could have found it on yahoo already. POSITIVE FIRST. then NEGATIVE SECOND. it is typical to spark a little.

 
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it shouldnt spark like "crazy". just a tiny spark when the terminals first make contact. i know it might sound dumb, but make sure youre touching the right cable to the right terminal.

 
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Yeah if you have a capacitor for your system of course it will spark, don't be scared, just put it on. Just to clarify the "+" sign is positive, and the side that has a wire connected directly to the car, that is negative lol.

 
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Install the battery and hook up the ground first. Very carefully use a resistor and touch it between the positive post and the positive battery terminal. You can start with a higher value like 10k ohm and move down as low as 1k ohm or maybe even lower. It might take you a couple of minutes but the cap will be charged full (or close enough) and then you can connect the positive terminal to the batt. There shouldn't be a spark if you give it enough time and if there is it will be much smaller than what you're experiencing now.

 
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are you sure its negative first? i am almost 90% sure you install the positive first. when you remove the battery you always do the negative then positive. NEVER positive first. so its logical to install positive then negative no?

 
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I hadn't even really put too much thought into that part of it. Mostly I wanted to get the cap charged up to a decent voltage so when the battery connections are finished there isn't a large spark. It is probably good for the vehicle's control modules and such to see the ground before they get power. That way they aren't powered up on the high side and left searching for any kind of ground. For some reasons that can be a problem with vehicle electronics.

I've had issues with remote starters and alarms when unhooking a battery on the ground side and not the positive. The alarm freaks out or the r/s tries to start when it finally sees ground when you hook the battery back up. However, if you leave the ground hooked up and disconnect the 12V neither unit seems to act up. I might have no idea what I'm talking about.

Either way the resistor was just an idea to charge the cap without any disassembly at all.

 
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Oh it just hit me, you hook up the positive first so if you're not good with tools you don't accidentally short your ratchet to a grounded piece of metal while tightening the positive. Not a bad rule for the most part. It'll be okay to do the resistor thing to charge the cap, please be a little careful though. Don't short out your tools! It sucks and then you'll really see a spark.

 
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Listen to christmaspie. He's one of the few people on this site who know what they're talking about.

 
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connect positive cable always first. you can still use a resistor on the negative side or even a test light between the cable and the battery post will do the same thing basically