Battery woes!

[Bloodyribeye]

I have a xpress hd20cc with yamaha 90tlr. I have not used it very much so i took out rear batt to charge. when i put battery back in, smoke came from ign switch wirles. I think i might have put a wire on wrong. The main pos cable has a black wire that pigtails off of it, i think this should have went to negative with the other negative, insted i put with pos. anyone familiar with this??

[surfcaster]

You made a direct short if it fried something. Never assume any voltage just by wire color. Any pos wire thats not red should be marked with red tape. Voltage does not care what color the wire is.

I always take pics of things before I take them apart since I don't work on my boat all the time. There should also be a fuse in the link to prevent smokin' something.

[dboyd351]

Should be color coded, red for positive, black for negative. Sounds like you hooked it up backwards.

[200090tlry]

I just changed my boats wires

The lengths were all same so I snipped ones close to positive and bundled them. Both batteries are mounted positive terminal closest to transom so there matching on either side boat. Now there is no way to ever cross them well unless the battery is installed backwards. One of the reds is from motor,one to fishfinder and stereo other im not sure maybe a live well.