Chevrolet Repair: battery and electrical, jumper cables, starter solenoid

Question
I own an 88 S-10 Blazer. The electrical is messsed up and has a short somewhere, but its always run just fine. My battery died so I tried jumping it. When I tried to finish connecting the jumper cables it arced badly. So I thought I would try a new battery. Started connecting it and went to connect the final cable and did the same thing. I live in the middle of nowhere so must do my own work on it as towing would be expensive and now I can't even hook it up to start it. Do you have any ideas?  

Answer
Hello Tony,
OK...
It is obvious you have a pretty strong short somewhere.
Connect one battery terminal like it goes.
Then on the other cable, and it doesn't matter which you use, pos or neg, but whatever is easiest, take a test light, or a headlight bulb...something that you can tell later if it gets dimmer.
Connect one terminal of the light, with a wire, to the battery post that you left unhooked.
Connect the other terminal of the test light to the battery cable that you left off.
The light should illuminate, and I suspect it will be as bright as possible.
When you have it connected, and on, go to the fuse block and start unhooking stuff till the light goes off, or gets real dim, and that is the circuit where the short is.

Really, I would expect it to be in the starter solenoid, so disconnect it from the system also, even though it is hard to get to.
But if the problem is not in the starter, it will be in a circuit that has a heavy circuit breaker, like power windows, power seat, or headlights.
Check all the lights to see if any are glowing when the test light is in line.

Van