Battery Problems

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I recently installed a new, Fully charged battery in my 1971 VW Bus. When I came back 15 Minutes later and tried to start it the battery was dead. I did notice after I hooked up the pos cable and then tried to hook up the neg cable there was a lot of sparking as I put the cable on the post. Could this be a short in the system or did the system somehow reverse polarity? Please Help, Thank You, Bob

[keifernet]

although not common I have seen a battery charged by an idiot at ___________ parts house (you fill in the blank) reverse polarity....
But sounds like you have a short, check the voltage regulator first... disconnnect the big red wires from it then try reconnecting a charged battery.....
If you still get sparks look elsewhere.
Pull fuses one at a time and reconnect and look for the sparking...

By the way a decent Multimeter when connected to the battery will thell you if the battery was chargeg wrong.... If you touch the leads (red+ black- like it should be) and it is correct it will read 12.5 + or - a bit but if it was reversed the digital readout would show.... -12.5 ( negative )
try your meter on another car battery and see what it does when you touch the leads normally and reversed you'll see what I mean.....

Sounds like a bad Voltage reg or generator
or ignition switch Maybe Starter or soleinoid too. I'm sure you'll get some other advise on this one as well... good luck and peolple, let us who try and help you know if we have done you any good or not... No one is going to be correct always or even close due to the nature of diagnostics over the net, but it helps to know what direction it's going.....

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you could also have changed the polarity of your voltaged regulartor and this would drain the charge of the battery by not letting the alternator charge the battery but if you just take a wire from the pos side of the bat and touch it to the pos side of the voltage reg it will polarize it and begin to charge it again if that helps any bill@the busdepot

[DRS1984]

check your terminals to be sure they are not coroded, i spent 50 bucks on a battery one time to find out that all i needed was a 1 dollar terminal. also check to be sure that the ground wire is connected to the ground, don't go by colours, they lie.

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Thanks for all your ideas and suggestions. The problem turned out to be a bad Voltage Regulator, I replaced it and polarized it now everything is great. Thanks again, Bob.