Went to replace the grid heater solenoids on my 12 valve the other day, and noticed that when I went to drive off, that I was not charging. Got to a friends house and went to trouble shoot it and noticed that the positive line was hot, disconnected it and everything worked right.

So, what could I have done wrong. I replaced the old setup with two larger Bosch Solenoids that were self-grounded (total of four connections).

Any thoughts or ideas?

 

Pretty sure on a '98 that the control trigger to the relay from the PCM is negative, positive trigger should be present at the relay when ever the key is on run.
A grounded base relay will keep the relay on all the time.
Either isolate the relay from ground or use a non-grounded one.