Truck died on the freeway today, changed the alternator and battery and as I was putting the battery in I think it shorted something. Sparked really bad and smoke a little. There’s power from the battery and cables, not the alternator or starter. Don’t know where to test from and I could use some pictures as I’m a visual learner here. Thanks.

 

If you haven't already, I'd go through all the fuses first. It's possible that you smoked a relay too. If all the fuses look good, try swapping the main relay. I think there's a couple that are the same, you can just try one to see if it changes anything.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, and my truck is the next gen. I'm just going off similar experiences.

 

So The fusible link was fried bad. Turns out the new battery had the terminals opposite... so the cables got put on backwards. The truck now cranks but still won’t start. Could it have fried past the fusible link? If so what would it have fried as well? Will be testing spark tomorrow to see if the coil is still good.

 

Now that you got the fusible link sorted out, you're probably back to why it died while driving. Spark test is a good start. If that's good look into the fuel system. Usually when a fuel injected vehicle up and quits it's something like a bad fuel pump, or the fuel electrical circuit (relay, fuse).