Rereading you said you have a block of some kind in the NEGATIVE battery lead (usually it's in the positive lead) and when you measure across it the voltage goes POOF
Ok, let me draw a line graph
Positive end of battery{battery}Negative----T1-Block-T2---Chassis
Measure Postive terminal to T-1,, if 12 volt then measure positive to T-2, if low volt measure T-1 to T-2, greater than a fraction of a volt that device I called BLOCK is your problem.. IT may be
Circuit breaker, Ammeter shunt. Other type of device (Logically one of the first two though) If it is a circuit breaker what it is doing in the NEgative lead I have no idea, they usually put 'em in the positive.