I cleaned both the battery posts and terminals and did nothing. But!!!!! the positive terminal was realy stuck on there when i first was trying to take it off. I was trying to turn it realy hard and the whole post turned a little. The post seems tight now but that proly caused damage to the battery?

 

My guess would be that when you hooked your ground to the step the circuit would have to go from the step to the frame through the ground strap for the motor, then to the exhaust, most exaust is hung with rubber hangers. I would check your engine ground strap, alternator ground wire, starter ground and all relays, also have your alternator tested. It has a built in voltage regulator that could've taken all the welders power. Like I ssaid you basically turned your whole truck into a circuit. ALWAYS ground your welder on the part, closest to the weld as possible.

 

ok, i was doin some research and found that this is a common toyota problem. Its the contacts in the starter. The symptoms are the starter only clicks once, then theres no more attempt to start, all lights are bright untill you turn the key then everything goes out untill you let go of the key

 

That sounds more like a bad ground, than bad contacts in the starter......

 

ok i will check the grounds, what am i looking for in the grounds, like the wire being burnt?

 

Yep, the battery's probably a goner now. Between the post and the plate all you've got is lead, and the weakest point is at the transition from fat round post to thin flat plate. That's where twisting the terminal will shear the lead. If you got lucky and didn't reduce the cross section via shearing, you probably still compromised the post seal and will soon start seeing corrosion.

That said, you might just as well load test the battery, and if it tests good you can leave it until some time later, after you've found the components that were fried by carrying the welder current.

I wish you the best of luck in finding all of the components that were damaged. Hopefully they're few and cheap parts. My biggest worry for you is that the magic smoke was released from your PCM when your vehicle grounds suddenly weren't all at the same potential and caused current to flow through your sensor circuits. The various electronic widgets on the vehicle were not designed to withstand that kind of abuse.

 

Mostly just bad contact. Make sure everything is clean and tight. (and that ground wires have TWO ends.... )

And I agree with the above also, get the battery tested.