While replacing my carb today and trying to restart the bike I smelt a small bit of plastic burning and alittle bit of smoke not much at all. I then saw a spark come from the positive wire right about at the terminal. The positive wire was also hot to the touch. Not taking any chances whats my next move here?

 

Bike is 1993 883 sportster

 

Tighten the positive wire and try again. It may have been loose for awhile and you didn't notice. And a loose wire like that will be very hot to the touch. Burning plastic may have been the insulation on the wire.

 

Remove and clean the bat connections and re try. A loose connection will create heat and sparks. Also look for any bare wires or rub marks in the loom. This only happened when you tried to crank it?

 

Better tighten the negative while you are at it too...

 

Also check the ground on the engine aswell

 

Sounds like a bad contact indeed. Bad contact is just like a too small a wire carrying a high load. The wire gets hot because there's not enough conductive material to transport the electricity, so what material there is has to carry more. The bad connection is a bottleneck so, get hot.

 

You guys are good. The positive had come slightly loose. Tighten connection next I'll pull battery and check for any wear on wiring.