I have a 1988 IROC Z 305 TPI and it has been sitting for almost 2 years. Recently I put a new distributor on it. When I hooked my battery charger up to the battery my battery charger continuously beeped. I checked inside and it fried the ECM. I was wondering why or what caused it to do this. Would appreciate any feedback.

 

Why do think the ECM is fried?

 

How do you know it's "fried"? What are the symptoms?

 

Well there was a little smoke and the ECM was hot to the touch. You could smell it.

 

Smoke and the ECM was so hot you couldn't touch it.

 

The charger might have been beeping (as a result of a self-protecton circuit) due to some sort of short within the ECM, causing the ECM to pull more current than the charger is designed to deliver. The charger isn't going to "push" current through the ECM, but a short in the ECM will definitely pull signficant current. Though it should be fused, so not sure why the fuse wouldn't have blown if that's the case.

Any rate, maybe take an ohmmeter and check the resistance between the battery terminal and ground. If you detect a short, unplug the ECM and see if goes away. If it does, then yeah probably something in the ECM shorted.

Then also find the fuse for the ECM and replace it. If the fuse was able to sustain the short, it may be the case that a previous owner or something replaced the fuse with a higher rating than the factory one.

I'm assuming the ignition was off during this event.

 

Yes, the ignition was off, the battery was dead. I will try that and see what happens. I appreciate the advice.