Hey everyone, new owner ofthe 2.8L V686' Camaro. It's a bit of a project car but I'm excited.

I was installing the new battery today and I had to replace the battery terminals as the old ones were completely missing. On the positive side of the battery there were three wires that reach to the positive terminal that were naked (copper sticking out from being pulled off the old terminal). On the negative side there was only one wire that looked to be the ground. My problem is that I'm not sure which wire does what. After installing the three wires together on a positive terminal it goes on the battery fine, but if I try to touch the negative it sparks continuously until I pull the negative off (so I know its not because I'm touching something else metal). It of course does the same when I try to put the negative on first.

I've fixed up a few cars but always did mechanical work, not electrical, so I don't know much about it.

Question: Are one of those three wires that look to be positives actually a negative, or is there another explination?

Thanks for your time.

 

My 88 has just one 10 ga. body ground wire going to the right fender along with the larger engine ground for the neg side. On the positive cable I have one 10 ga. wire attached to the starter cable. You mentioned 3 wires so the other might be an add-on for an accessory such as a stereo amp maybe? It will have a tiny spark when reconnecting the batt cables because of the ecm, interior lamp, or other accs. If the spark is abnormally large then you may have a short.