I was in changing a cracked fuel line from my boost pump to the fuel selector and had to pull the battery to get to the line on the boost pump. In all the man handling under the console we ended up putting the battery in backwards and hooked up the wires. Turned on the master and had smoke coming out from under the panel and the fire wall. Closer examination revealed that the small wire from the master to the solenoid had burnt up. During this few second ordeal we did hear the solenoid make a couple of very soft clicks during the smoking. It appears that while the voltage was hooked up backwards that it must have tried to engage the solenoid through the small wire and of course it won't handle that. In looking around I can't seem to find any other damage. I hooked the battery up correctly (no idiot proof connections like our automotive cousin) Nothing else was turned on, key was never touched and no fuses had blown.
So my question is would I have damaged anything else permanently?
Would I be safe in just changing the wire and trying it again?
Could I have damaged the solenoid?
Some days it seems like 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
Alternator diodes and gauges (especially Van's gauges) will usually fry with reverse polarity. Only one way to tell, start it up and see what doesn't work
Yes I'll try a new wire today and hope for the best but I'm expecting the worst.
Good lesson here on the Odyssey battery that I will need to make sure that terminals on the battery are Highlighted as to what is + and what is negative. Eyes getting older and working in a dimly lit environment its an easy mistake to make especially when the terminals are in the center of the battery, are the same size bolt and the markings on the battery are next to impossible to read as they are part of the molding process.
On a positive note I must be mellowing out with age. No more getting worked up, no more swearing at my self, no more throwing tools around. Just truck along, accept it as it is and fix it.
Now if I hadn't over tightened those fuel lines when I changed the fuel valve last year I wouldn't be in this predicament today.
Ok it appears that my continuous duty relay was fried as it would not click when I bench tested it and the new one does.
As well there was a yellow wire that ran from the small center pin (switch) to the big hot # 2 wire that runs to the starter. I thought that this was weird until I read on the forum that it is a Diode and its recommended.
So by the looks of it I probably need to order another one of those?
Then I found the solenoid when I took it off the firewall that it was on a bed of silicone insulating it and minimizing the ground to the air frame.
So, I'm wondering of this is an accepted and recommended practice? Or should I remove the silicone before installing the new master solenoid?
