still not right.

I just tried to hook my battery cables to my battery. Got the positive on the battery which also has the big red wire from the msd6 box and also a direct 10 wire from the alternator to do the mad ammeter change over to a volt meter. When I tried to install the negative cable to the battery I got sparks big time? My starter relay had the big battery cable red 10ga going to the large stud. Then there is a black cable coming from the small nut on the starter which I placed under the small nut on the relay. The yellow ignition wire is plugged onto the small angled push on terminal. The other push on terminal is undetermined as to which wire goes there, so it presently has not wire hooked to it. My ballast wires blue and brown have been cut away from the ballast, but I have yet to tie them together which I understand also needs to have the red from the msd box tied into them as well. Presently these are not wired together yet. I was hoping I could hook the battery and then have power to test wires but I got sparks? I am trying to figure out why this would happen. Could it be because some of the wires are not yet together. I also did not have the large black from the msd box hooked to the negative battery cable. Maybe that was a good thing with sparks flying. Don't want to harm the msd box or the msd distributor? Any ideas???