February 16, 201016 yr So my alternator went bad, as the volt guage was jumping and I was getting a pulse in the lights. I bought a remanufactured alt from napa and installed it. After installing the reman alt, Most of my dash guages were on all the time, and the volt guage read low - like 10 volts. I decided to drive to napa and have them test the alternator. I grabbed another alt as a spare just in case, as the napa is about 20 miles from home. On the way there the battery drained and eventually the car died. At that time I swapped the spare alternator in as I knew it came from a working car. When I tried to start the car with another battery and the spare alt, there was nothing. No click, no start, nothing. So I checked the fusible links and sure enough, the middle one (Red) link was burned out. I tried replacing it and it burned another. The fuses in the fuse panel inside don't indicate that the fuses to the battery is bad, so what is wrong? Thanks.
February 16, 201016 yr Sounds like a bad voltage regulator to me. The blown fusible link could be a short caused by the AC from the bad VR damaging something.... you'll have to trace down the short, repair the VR, etc. Do you have an FSM? It will tell you what circuits are run by the different fusible links..... GD
February 16, 201016 yr Author Sounds like a bad voltage regulator to me. The blown fusible link could be a short caused by the AC from the bad VR damaging something.... you'll have to trace down the short, repair the VR, etc. Do you have an FSM? It will tell you what circuits are run by the different fusible links..... GD I only have the 79 FSM, but I have a haynes and a chiltons I think. Thats a help.
February 16, 201016 yr If those don't have what you need I can look in my FSM and tell you what fuses are run from the link you are having problems with. GD
February 16, 201016 yr Author If those don't have what you need I can look in my FSM and tell you what fuses are run from the link you are having problems with. GD It seems like the wire thats bad is the one white wire that is big - 10guage in the middle of the coltage regulator. Goes into the harness, and I can't tell where it leads. I thought there was an fsm available online in a pdf but I can't find it here. I'll try google next and see if I can find something.
February 16, 201016 yr That would be the main output from the alternator most likely. That's the main supply wire to the fusible links (main junction). GD
February 17, 201016 yr Author Yes, its the main to the alt. I unplugged the alternator and tried another fuse and voila, it will run. Now, should I replace the alt again and see what happens? Or is there something in the wiring system that could be bad? I'll get another reman'd alt from napa and try tomorrow. Thanks.
February 17, 201016 yr Yes, its the main to the alt. I unplugged the alternator and tried another fuse and voila, it will run. Now, should I replace the alt again and see what happens? Or is there something in the wiring system that could be bad? I'll get another reman'd alt from napa and try tomorrow. Thanks. If it is OK w/alt. unplugged,they gave you a bad one(very bad). Be VERY indignant. What yr/model?
February 17, 201016 yr Author If it is OK w/alt. unplugged,they gave you a bad one(very bad).Be VERY indignant. What yr/model? Its an 86 hatch ea81
February 18, 201016 yr Which napa reman is it? what color is the box? I have had terrible results with the blue box napa remans. i have gone through 5 of them on my 85 wagon within 2 weeks the silver box is a little better, i have had to replace the replacement only once. It seems remanufactured alternators are a crapshoot Oh yeah, if they're testing machine says it works, tell them they are full of sh*t. I had the same alternator tested at 2 different napa's and one said it was broken, and the second test at the other napa said it was fine. Edited February 18, 201016 yr by Markus56
February 18, 201016 yr Author Which napa reman is it? what color is the box? I have had terrible results with the blue box napa remans. i have gone through 5 of them on my 85 wagon within 2 weeks the silver box is a little better, i have had to replace the replacement only once. It seems remanufactured alternators are a crapshoot Oh yeah, if they're testing machine says it works, tell them they are full of sh*t. I had the same alternator tested at 2 different napa's and one said it was broken, and the second test at the other napa said it was fine. Its the blue box model. I shoulda figured. I couldn't believe that the alt was worse after putting it in. Ok, Guess I'll be getting another. Thanks guys.
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