charging problems after short

Jeremy_K

Registered User
charging problems after electrical short...HELP!!

THIS IS LONG BUT PLEASE, I NEED HELP! I forgot to disconnect my battery before doing my my motor mounts the other night. as my assistant (i won't mention any names! haha), disconnected the alternator, the wire touched metal by mistake and the starter solenoid went up in smoke. i put in a new starter solenoid and put everything back together and it ran that night and the next day it died on my way to work. i had the alternator and the battery tested and they were both dead. so i put a new alternator and battery in and it ran fine once again for a day. today on my way to work it started dying again. i started it up and took the pos. battery cable off and it died instantly. i don't know tons about electrical but i would think there's some kind of fuse or bad wire between the alternator and the battery? anyone ever had this prob.? it is a brand new alternator from autozone(not a rebuild). i will get that tested in the morning since it could be a lemon. any help will be greatly appreciated. -jeremy
 
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It was me! I admit it! It was me! I'm the dumba**. :( Boy, I've never seen a solenoid make so much smoke in my life:eek: I was wondering if there is a fusible link somewhere in the alternator/ battery system that could have blown? Alternator have internal voltage regulator? Hmmmm.
 
well, i did a search for dead alternator. someone did have a problem with a fusible link. a few guys reported going through many alternators before they got one that worked. the alternator does have an internal voltage regulator. i'll get it tested today and get into the wiring. wish me luck
 
Definitely check that fusible link. Sounds like it blew. Its in the bundle of wires behind the fuse box. Don't know the color, but if it blew, it should be visible. Other thing to do is to take the main cable off the alt and check the resistance (Ohms) btwn it and the positive battery cable. Should be 0. Needless to say, unhook the negative batt cable first before you do anything. You might want to check this before you pull the alt to have it tested. If you don't have a voltmeter, go buy a cheap one from azone or walmart. Its essential for trouble shooting electrical problems and you will have some eventually.

I'm sort of curious as to how you found a new alt from Azone. If it said Duralast on the box, its a rebuilt and you can't positively rule it out as a problem. It took 3 tries for me to get a good Duralast rebuilt alt from Azone. However, even the 2 bad ones lived for at least a month or so. .
 
ill second the above post, when buying a rebuilt altenator from autozone i had to return one that was yet again bad. just double check.
 
it said on the computer it was a new alternator with a limited lifetime warranty. they also had the rebuilt ones listed. but i did find the problem. it was a fusible link connected to the starter solenoid from the alternator cable. i brought back autozone their alternator and got an autolite alternator at checker before i found the broken link. i also bought a new fusible link for$1.99 and connected it to the good half of the old one. problem solved.
 
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