Holy Chit man! That battery is smoked! Gonna have to trade that bike in on a new one now!

 

When I go to put the new battery in. It melts the battery terminals the second I put the cable to it. I pulled the ground cable and cleaned and put back in but same thing -- would love some help!!

 

WAH!?!? Holy hell, your hot must absolutely be going to ground somewhere!

 

Your positive WILL have a fault to ground. No two ways about it.

 

definitely a short to ground on the main battery cable. it has to be between the batt terminal and the main fuse. if it was after the fuse it would pop the fuse. could also be a fried starter. the battery cable goes down directly to the starter on the main lug. there is no fuse in that circuit. disconnect the cable from the starter, protect/cover the end of the cable and reconnect to battery. if all is well you have a bad starter.

with the abuse those cables have taken i would highly recommend replacing both positive and negative cables if you haven't already.

 

Good thinking Batman!

 

don't forget to disconnect the batt cable at the starter...

 

I would hand trace the positive battery cable before I did anything else.
It HAS to be cut, nicked, or worn through at some point where it can touch the frame, oil tank, or some other grounded part of the bike.
ANY other kind of electrical short is likely to be after the main fuse and that would blow the fuse long before the terminals got warm, let alone melt.
Even a short in the starter solenoid would probably just spin the starter over as soon as the cable touched the battery.

 

Wow...never seen one that bad! Sounds like you have lots of good recommendations already posted.

 

To melt like that takes some serious current.....it is not a loose connection...it is definitely something shorting out somewhere.....