as for your new battery, sounds like the connections are definitely not tight enough . . . based on the description and no pictures yet
As for the first battery, how old was it? It sounds like it was either pretty old and failing . . . and repeatedly jump starting a vehicle and driving it doesn’t really bring it up to a full state of charge . . . and you may also have a parasitic draw
When you do manage to upload the pictures, that will be a big help. thanks
Sounds like someone got tired of unbolting the negative terminal and added an aftermarket switch. Does it look something like this?
anything getting hot or melting is due to a poor connection creating resistance. Everything needs to be clean and tight. If the switch is damaged and they cut off the original terminal to add this switch, it may be less hassle to simply replace the switch and make sure everything is clean and tight before charging the battery with a trickle charger before running it again.
If it is a switch like TwinTurbo described, I would recommend replacing the negative cable. The negative cable is fairly inexpensive. The positive cable should be cleaned and inspected. Yes, fully charge the new battery before attempting to start.
I found this about new members posting pics…
A new member can post exactly one image immediately upon creating an account
Because the Car Talk Community is powered by the Discourse platform, all brand-new accounts start at Trust Level 0 (New). At this initial level, anti-spam restrictions limit you to one image per post.
To lift these restrictions and gain the ability to post multiple pictures, you must automatically advance to Trust Level 1 (Basic) by casually browsing the forum. This usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes of reading and requires meeting three quick milestones:
Once you reach Trust Level 1, the platform automatically removes the restrictions and expands your privileges. Keep in mind that the Car Talk Guidelines require all uploaded media to be safe for a general audience and respect copyright rules.
Thanks so much. It would not let me upload pictures, but that is the exact switch.
Once you restore integrity to the wiring and get the battery charged, you’ll need to find out if the switch was added to compensate for a parasitic draw that was draining the battery.
