Fried Alternator Wiring-HELP!!!!!!!

[turboawd1992]

I have had a problem w/ my alternator not recharging the battey. I have tracked it down to the wiring on my alternator. The contacts are all burnt, the plastic that goes around everything is melted. The threaded post and nut are full of white corrosion. The post spins freely in the alternator making the wire removal a pain. The nut got so brittle that a peice broke off of it. Most of the plastic crumbled when I touched it. It must have gotten VERY hot. Any theoris on a cause/ cure?

[djdigitaldeath]

I'm a DC electrition so i will attemt to help you with your problem..

You will need to check the state of your battery, The alternator and battery work together more then most poeple think.

At anyrate sounds to me like you may have your main positive lead (running to your alternator) gronded on somthing like maybe somthing pinched it or rubbed/burned off a small section of the plasic jacket witch the exposed part of the wire could be touching the chases.

Thats just one guess, there are a ton of things that could have happend, i'm not too far way from you maybe i could take a look if you get too fustrated.

Steps on repair, Replace all damaged wireing, test the battery for 12volts, test alternator for output.

[turboawd1992]

Battery is new and checks out fine. Alternator is fairly new too (rebuilt) w/ maybe 6 or 7 hundred miles. P art of the plastic cap was broken off. I have had the thought that perhaps water got in there and created a short? I may cut off the damaged wires/ connections and splice in parts from a junkyard. I was working on it untill it started to rain. (no garage) Not a good time to play with electricity. U think new wires and plastic cap might solve it? I would like actually drive my car at some point in my life.

[OWGTI]

Id first replace the bad wiring with pieces from a junked cars harness. Make sure you do a porper joint (solder and heat shrink) we had to do this to my buddys 5.0 mustang too, its not too bad. If that stud on the alternator is spinning, it probably isnt making good connection and should be replaced (the whole alternator that is) and could it have been an exhaust leak that melted the connections in ght first place?

[stevep]

Or the nut wasn't tight to start with and it all melted from contact resistance.

Steve

[turboawd1992]

I just replaced the alt. and cleaned the wire contacts w/ a dremel. So far, no problem, but I will replace the wiring as soon as time permits. Thanks for the help/ suggestions, hopefully it was just a bad alternator. Every time I tested the voltage on the alt., I got a completly different result until it just died. Bad voltage regulator?

[OWGTI]

Yeah my old VW did that, it would give a high reading for a while, then slowly drop off as I was driving... new alternator solved that.