Reverse battery cables

[Mack Verde]

So I was looking at a Cobra that has been sitting in storage mode with the battery out on a tender. It has a battery relocation with a small Braille battery. The gentleman had paid a shop to do all his work. We were doing a compression test with me upfront to crank the car / pull plugs watch gauge. He hooked it up and I had no juice when trying to crank...after about 30-45 seconds I saw smoke from alternator and by fuse box, I told him to remove the terminals and he did. Turns out it's a R battery with flip-flopped posts...no fuses blew and the wires looked okay from a visual inspection. Has anyone ran into this? After I hooked the battery up for him the lights worked / fuel pumps primed / headlights worked / car cranked fine for compression test. Any thing I should look for? It's a great deal but now I'm worried about possible gremlins

 

[Albatross]

I would check the alternator output at the battery, make sure it's charging the battery while running. Since you said you saw smoke from the alternator something internal could have burned up. Decent alternators can be expensive (J2Fab/Nations).

 

[apex svt]

If it’s a stock alternator it has a red plastic coated lead that “relocates” the connection point a couple inches down. I cracked mine and it melted in half causing a battery failure. Easy check.