Help! I Fried something

[timbolia]

This is from another post of mine, but I hope more people will see this.

It looked like my alternator was bad so I ordered new brushes (cause I am low on funds, of course) So I got the brushes today. Put them in, hooked up the alternator, connected the positive cable and... POP-Sizzle! Smoke came off of the wires going into the firewall, I pulled the cable off, black was loose. Now it is dead. What happened? and how can I fix it?

HELP!
__________________

 

[Robbie2734]

Check the fusible link, it should be at the bulk head connector. Then, before you connect the battery have the alternator checked. It sounds like you have a short somewhere and my money is on bad diodes in the alternator.

 

[green1]

Field shorted in the alternator. Now wiring time in the bulkhead connector.
What worked for me, while I installed battery in trunk: soldered together am peter wires and put in voltmeter., and got the main wire out of the bulkhead, and brand new Advanced alt. Iwired alt straight to the battery.Then( I dunno), moved battery and reran the alt to trunk battery. Fired it up; 18 volts. Checked the grounds, good. Bought a new volt regulator. 18 volts. Took the alternator to local shop.Tested, one field shorted; then he asked me "where was the blue and green wires hooked?" I said that they were backwards, as is doesn't matter.,
He said, " Correct, but if you had them hooked correctly, with the field wire that was grounded, you would be tearing the dash out, and replacing all the wires. Then I explained how I wired in a 4 wire cut-off switch,and bypassed the dash. He liked that.
the moral of the story is: ditch the alt wire going into the bulkhead box, install a voltmeter, run the alternator wire, under the hood, straight to the battery.

 

[timbolia]

So is the fusable link that little plastic block thing on the firewall? There is a wire on the firewall that says "Fuseable Link" on it but it does not go to the white plastic thing, and it looks OK from the outside. I guess the first thing I need to do is have the altenator checked. Then I need to make sure I wired it up corectly. Anyone have a pic of a single field alternator hooked up?

 

[Snake]

get out your test light.