In the bomber the pos is a copper or brass bar that sits across the batteries. So it has to be in that area, maybe the button is stuck on and the insulator around the button is bad or something wrong with the 510 pin.With the whole box as the ground, any metal touching the box will cause a short (and I'm assuming that includes screwing in the batteries)
Maybe the bar itself shifted and is touching something
The whole case is ground, the battery positive is insulated by a nylon block, it has to be after that point, since pos contact is only movable piece and no Atty to complete circuit,