Replaced the battery terminal cables,
connected the positive first and then went to
connect the negative and it sparks like crazy
as if it would catch on fire. Literally connected
everything back as I took it off to replace.

One thing I did notice when it began to spark
is that one of the positive terminal ends that
connects to the starter started to smoke as
well.

I took off everything and put it back on and it
did the same thing, I even tried to put the old
cables back on and it did the same thing.

 

Did you happen to install the battery backwards, where you are putting the - battery cable to the + battery post?

 

never moved the battery at all, only replaced the terminal cables. Checked to make sure the proper cables are going to the correct terminals. I even put the originals back on and got the same issue.

 

Not much on the car can draw that much current, so something is installed incorrectly. Check that you didn't somehow ground or connect the + battery cable to the wrong part of the starter. I'm not sure if you replaced the whole battery cable, but also check that you have the + and - connected properly the the fuse box.

 

I'm going to give you my crazy story. I did electrical work on my friends 16 Suburban a couple months back because he was having the dash flicker all the time (I knew what the issue was due to me having a 15 Yukon). I changed out all the power and ground cables. He also needed a new battery so I went and got him one. Once I changed out all the cables i put the positive on then proceeded to the ground cable. It sparked like crazy. I put it on anyway and nothing from the car's ignition. I took the battery home to see if it needed a charge and got an error for it being connected wrong. Needless to say I blew the main fuse and needed another battery because it was put together backwards.

My point in telling this story is never assume the part you have is good even new. A lot of parts are put together by humans and we make mistakes. What you're going through sounds like the same thing I went through.

 

So Sean, was that battery somehow charged backwards? So the post marked (+) was actually negative? That's bizarre...
Yeah, putting a voltmeter across the battery posts just to be sure the polarity is the right way around - that's something I might not bother to verify but it comes down to taking nothing for granted.

Another thing to check is everything switched OFF when you connect that negative battery cable. Something like the headlight switch being turned on is not a real huge draw on the battery, but it IS capable of creating sparks because connecting the cable isn't designed & covered to the extent that an actual switch is.

 

I have no idea how it happened. Literally I picked the battery up hooked it up to the truck and nothing. When I put it on my charger it gave me the error and when I crossed the cables it started charging no issues. When I took it back to advance auto they couldn't believe and checked themselves. The positive lead was indeed the negative side of the battery. They said they've never seen it before. I hadn't either before that day. Now I check all my batteries before connecting them.