So I was de-winterizing the boat, and realized I had forgot to unplug the battery. It was of course dead, so I went and bought a new one. But in my haste I hooked the cables up wrong. I fried some wires I think by all the white smoke I saw, but I can't find them yet. Basically the engine won't start with a good battery connected the right way now. The starter is getting juice, but when I turn the key the "enable" wire on the starter doesn't get any voltage. So I need to ring that path out, but I'm also trying to figure out what else could have been damaged. The starting fuse (50A) is ok. The boat is a 1993 Sea-Ray skiray with the mercruiser 5.7L inboard. The other bit of information is that when I left the new battery correctly installed after a week the battery was completely drained. So I've got a weak short some where, but not sure where. I've heard the alternator rectifier diodes could be bad which would explain the dead battery maybe, but not the lack of start. I did notice that when I put a new battery in yesterday that a slight whirring noise was coming from the alternator. Any thoughts on other things to check? I'm guessing there is an inline fuse on the ignition wire somewhere, but as of yet I haven't located it. I appreciate any thoughts/help.
-John
-John