HELP! Smoking alternator wire!

[Lason]

Had a car burn to the ground due to electrical. No fire extinguisher in the world will help as long as the battery is hooked up. If I saw 37 volts even once then that alternator would be gone, that regulator is fubar'd and you are asking for trouble leaving it in there.

[80coupe]

iv done something like this before by not plugging the alt in after carb swap going done the road to scared the shit out of me!

[scootro]

Had a car burn to the ground due to electrical. No fire extinguisher in the world will help as long as the battery is hooked up. If I saw 37 volts even once then that alternator would be gone, that regulator is fubar'd and you are asking for trouble leaving it in there.

yep same here! all of my cars have a battery disconnect switch now days. it's cheap insurance!!!

[Diabolic]

^^^^^^^^ I'm doing that this weekend.

[4eyedwillie]

To be completely honest I don't know. I have a fire extinguisher in the car now. I drive it a lot so I will check the condition of the new boot at every stop. If anything looks fishy I'll go ahead and replace it.

I had a van burn once....all two fire extigushers did was piss it off! Fireman told me that once it catches good that a hand held extiguisher is pointless.
I would replace the alternator!

[sig239]

37 volts? Lucky it didn't burn up every piece of electronic in car. That's almost three times as much as it was designed to take. 80+bucks for a altanator is a lot cheeper than computers, and what ever else blows. Your battery took the blunt of the extra voltage, wont be long you will be putting one in also.

[Diabolic]

I believe there was a problem with the meter. It completely died today. I haven't experienced any problems since the initial issue.

[mikeb]

I had a van burn once....all two fire extigushers did was piss it off! Fireman told me that once it catches good that a hand held extiguisher is pointless.
I would replace the alternator!

Roger that - I had an alt on a 88 F150 catch fire once - it took every bit of a 5lb extinguisher and a big bucket of water to put it out. The wires had already burned off of it so the battery wasn't still powering it. It was burning real good LOL....

A big cause of the fires on that generation of alt are the spade connectors in the big plastic plug that goes in the alt - that's why there is a new connector that comes with the alt. I didn't put it on when i replaced that alt LOL......

[Diabolic]

Just to satisfy my curiosity I removed the 4ga wire from the back of the alternator today. I started the car and tested the voltage at the lug. I got 39 volts right away. Hook back up the wire and get 13.3 at the same lug. I think this is the way it is suppose to operate. No short in the voltage regulator as many had speculated. I believe the wire on the back of the alternator was lose and caused it to overheat.