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Negative sparks


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Hey ratsun so my 78 620 was stolen but I had gotten it back without a battery and my ignition (part where the key goes into only) so I just bought them and now I tried to put the negative cable on (after the positive of course) and I get sparks from the neg pole on the battery I figured it was a short but I'm not quite sure where it is there used to be an aftermarket stereo if that helps but I removed it please help I can't diagnose the problem

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It's possible that whoever stole it put a jumper in to bypass the ignition (silly since it could be done at the switch plug, but thieves aren't exactly mensa material).  The ignition bypass could still be there.

 

Mike's suggestion is good- unplug the ignition switch and see if it still does it.  Maybe the switch is on, or not the right one for the truck.  If that doesn't do it, pull fuses.

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Some things are 'on' all the time. The clock is on all the time.

 

Is the horn working? If not maybe the relay is stuck and the owner just pulled the wires off the horns. The relay will still be on and drawing power.

 

Lights, brake lights, interior light, 4 way hazard switch all have power to them and can be on without the ignition switch on. Someone may have tapped into one of these for power for a CB, power amp, radio? Something may still be on.

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Unplug the ignition.... still sparks?

 

 

 

Did you try this? Can't move forward if items aren't tried and discounted as the cause.

 

 

Unplug the alternator. Sometimes a diode goes bad and drains power.

 

One at a time unplug the 6 fuses. If one stops the sparks, you have the circuit that is drawing the power.

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Of course it will spark if you touch it to the terminal and then interrupt the flow by removing it. Both terminals will do this. The problem is that there shouldn't be any power flowing through the system at all. An electric clock isn't really enough to cause a spark but a relay that is energized probably will. My choke was disconnected but the relay still hot... took about 3 days to drain the battery.

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