irishdoesntmeanlucky

I own a 97 GT and just did a clutch on it, it was sitting for a couple months before i completed that project. I then needed a new battery after that, drive it from the parking lot that it was stationed in to my home after installing the new battery. Drove home perfectly fine, turned it off, and then started it a couple hours later the started motor didn't engage fully and smoke came from the hood opened it immediately and the NEGATIVE battery terminal completely melted like candle wax, everything was HOT to the touch(positive wire and negative) i'm at a loss right now and would love some help, thank you

Simon1

Find source of short.
Correct it
Replace cable
Have battery tested
Try again

Sorry about your luck. At least it didn't catch fire and burn to the ground.

irishdoesntmeanlucky

Thank you!, so now this popped up, i got it running today and i thought i figured out where the short was, being the positive cable going to the starter it was grounding to the frame and i fixed that issue with electrical tape and moving it away from the frame, after that no problems. however later that night whenever i would hit the gas harder than the norm it would want to die on me with the battery light coming on. it eventually did die a couple minutes after a pull, with it going in and out a couple times before it completely stopped while i came to a red light. tried turning the ignition and nothing Didn't want to turn over anymore, opened the hood and touched the positive terminal to see if it was lose and the connection completly sparked and almost melted that terminal like the previous issue. I don't know if the starter is gone, alternator is bad, major fuze blown, distributor bad or coils, spark plugs, im at a loss also the car does sound different too than i remember...