Reversed Battery Hook Up Question

[Smoke33]

My son was helping me get the boat ready for summer and he hooked up the batter reversing the leads. Within a few seconds the alternator started on fire. I immediately pulled the lead he hadn’t secured yet off so they were only connected about 5 seconds. I have a new alternator but once I connect, are there any other things I need to check before attempting to start the boat? I searched and read things from nothing else needs to be done to replacing the inline diodes that connect to the alternator. Any help/input is appreciated. Thank you

 

[Scott Danforth]

basically anything on the boat that is polarity sensitive will be "fried" potentially a few wires as well. look over the whole boat. you may be lucky with just the alternator diode pack, or if your boat has diodes in the wiring harness, those too.

 

[Smoke33]

basically anything on the boat that is polarity sensitive will be "fried" potentially a few wires as well. look over the whole boat. you may be lucky with just the alternator diode pack, or if your boat has diodes in the wiring harness, those too.

Where do I get the diodes from and how do I know which ones? Am I okay to try and start it once the alternator is on to see if it will start/run or do I risk damaging something?

 

[Chris1956]

You might repost this in the correct engine forum. I would suspect your ignition system could be affected, but it may depend on engine brand and year.

 

[achris]

Please don't post the same question in multiple forums. Very confusing.

This thread locked, use the one in the Mercruiser forum, as it's a Mercriuser engine.