I just bought a 1989 740GL (with the B230F) cheap from a friend's parents. I was told it had been sitting in garage but was in good condition and just needed a new battery. When I arrived, the new battery was in but the clamps were in bad shape and needed replacing.

I repaced the negative (two wires, large and larger) and turned my attention to positive. It also had two wires hooked into the old clamp, but there was also a braid of three smaller brown wires that came together in what looked like a broken-off connector.

The braided wires came around the left edge from the back and ended up in the vicinity of the positive terminal. I made the (perhaps wrong) judgement that these were also positive leads, so I stripped the broken conector and wired it into my new postive clamp.

I connected the positive clamp and then the negative. Immediately sparks and smoke start coming from the area of the alternator. After a few seconds all went silent. The car shows no sign of electrical life.

Inspecting the alternator I found a six inch wire mounted on the engine block and touching the alternator housing near the voltage regulator. There wasn't anywhere the wire should obviously be connected.

Can anyone advise me on straightening out the decayed wiring and then tracking down what was damaged by that short? Is there a main fuse somewhere?

Thanks, John
New Volvo owner