I think I have a fried fusible link near my battery, please help?

[nelson84]

When I installed my new alternator The negative cable sliped down and started sparking and then I heard a sizzle and a pop next to the battery on the engine side. How do I tell which is fried and what to look for?

Please help you are my only hope?:confused

I suck at wiring.

 

[vetteboy86]

I'd pull the side cover and the battery out. Not sure what exactly could have smoked. Should be pretty obvious, look for something burnt, black, and melted.

Always a good idea to disconnect the battery when performing a repair

 

[vetteoz]

If the negative cable is disconnected from the battery how can anything short out?

 

[Schrade]

If the negative cable is disconnected from the battery how can anything short out?

I was thinking about this too :confused , but I had to stop thinkin' too much cause it was startin' to hurt and smoke

 

[vetteboy86]

If the negative cable is disconnected from the battery how can anything short out?

I assumed he was talking about the alternator wire. :confused

 

[Yoda]

If the Positive cable is connected to the battery and the Negative is not, as soon as the negative completes a circuit, (touching ground surface) Ground is required to complete the circuit (return path, if you will) possibly a few sparks ... the current draw of the circuit will determine the size of the sparks, most circuits are protected with fuse or circuit breakers

Bud

 

[vetteoz]

If the Positive cable is connected to the battery and the Negative is not, as soon as the negative completes a circuit,

IF the neg is disconnected from the battery ,there is no return path ; there is no way the circuit can be completed. The battery neg cable is the only ground return to the battery and has to be connected for any of the frame or metal to be grounded.
You could touch the neg cable from the frame ( not from the batt neg terminal ! ) on the battery positive with no effect because they are both the same polarity ;positive (+).
I always pull the batt + , despite what the FSM says; that ensures you have no hot wires anywhere and nothing can short out..

 

[vetteoz]

I assumed he was talking about the alternator wire. :confused

Thinking outside the square
Taking his comment into effect "I suck at wiring. " ;if that was the case he probably was talking about the heavy red positive wire to the Alt .
If that grounded out to the engine with both battery cables connected he has taken out the fusible link on the main Alt feed.

 

[Yoda]

IF the neg is disconnected from the battery ,there is no return path ; there is no way the circuit can be completed. The battery neg cable is the only ground return to the battery and has to be connected for any of the frame or metal to be grounded.
You could touch the neg cable from the frame ( not from the batt neg terminal ! ) on the battery positive with no effect because they are both the same polarity ;positive (+).
I always pull the batt + , despite what the FSM says; that ensures you have no hot wires anywhere and nothing can short out..

I have no idea what I was thinking... guess I should have finished my coffee first is the only excuse I can think of :bash

Thanks vetteoz for the gentle correction

Bud

 

[nelson84]

I have more than 1 cable attached to my battery, 1 black neg cable, 1 wire for my battery charger, 1 wire for my mickey mouse fan that runs steady when the key is turned on. The cable hook up for the fan was hanging below the battery and the negative cable was above and sliped down and touched the 2 together and touched the negative post on the battery. I should take a picture of that goofy setup, there is alot of black tape. Stupid previous owner.

 

[vetteoz]

The cable hook up for the fan was hanging below the battery and the negative cable was above and sliped down and touched the 2 together and touched the negative post on the battery.

Got to see a pic of this.:ugh
How can the neg cable slip down below the battery and still touch the neg post on battery above?

 

[vetteboy86]

I have more than 1 cable attached to my battery, 1 black neg cable, 1 wire for my battery charger, 1 wire for my mickey mouse fan that runs steady when the key is turned on. The cable hook up for the fan was hanging below the battery and the negative cable was above and sliped down and touched the 2 together and touched the negative post on the battery. I should take a picture of that goofy setup, there is alot of black tape. Stupid previous owner.

I would recommend ditching all the goofy wiring. If you need to run a fan, there are different ways of doing that.

Anyways, you have two hot wires to your battery, one is for your battery charger.:confused

 

[Schrade]

Yes - we definitely need pics.

EVERYBODY should take pics related to the issue. I think everybody is scared to take pics of their work on their vettes... No shortage of mammary pics tho'.

I don't get it :confused

 

[DomainMasters]

Fusable Link issue

When I installed my new alternator The negative cable sliped down and started sparking and then I heard a sizzle and a pop next to the battery on the engine side. How do I tell which is fried and what to look for?

Please help you are my only hope?:confused

I suck at wiring.

Nelson84, I had almost the exact same thing happen to me as well. I was working on my car (86 corvette) and the battery cable slipped back down to the negative terminal and it started to spark. Then I heard and saw a wire buring up. At first I didn't know what it was but then I found it! I had a burned up fusable link.

Fortunately, I have a Corvette Service Manual! And it says:

This wire feeds 3 relays located on your firewall and the ECM. The relays are the Fuel Pump relay, MAF relay and the MAF Burnoff relay. It will also lead to a "crank and no start" situation for your car.

Also, if you go to trouble shoot the problem, there is no "Service Engine Soon" light in the information center. Which means you cannot trouble shoot the problem because you cannot get the error code from the Service Engine Soon light. Actually, the no "Service Engine Soon" light IS the trouble code (51). This is beacuse the burned up wire wire feeds the ECM, as well, and that supplies power to the "Service Engine Soon" light.

Now all you have to do is find the relay that is shorted out or figure out if you blew the ECM. More than likely it's a relay. The fuel pump relay is high up on the firewall about in the cetner of the engine compartment but more towards the drivers side. The other two relays are right above the battery also, on the firewall.

If you find the problem relay, you still might have enough wire on the fusable link to put them back together with a connector or something if you can't get another fusable link.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck.

Stone.

 

[DomainMasters]

Fusable Link issue

When I installed my new alternator The negative cable sliped down and started sparking and then I heard a sizzle and a pop next to the battery on the engine side. How do I tell which is fried and what to look for?

Please help you are my only hope?:confused

I suck at wiring.

Nelson84, I had almost the exact same thing happen to me as well. I was working on my car (86 corvette) and the battery cable slipped back down to the negative terminal and it started to spark. Then I heard and saw a wire buring up. At first I didn't know what it was but then I found it! I had a burned up fusable link.

Fortunately, I have a Corvette Service Manual! And it says:

This wire feeds 3 relays located on your firewall and the ECM. The relays are the Fuel Pump relay, MAF relay and the MAF Burnoff relay. It will also lead to a crank and no start situation for your can.

Also, if you go to trouble shoot the problem, there is no "Service Engine Soon" light in the information center. Which means you cannot trouble shoot the situation because you cannot get the error code. Actually, the no "Service Engine Soon" light IS the trouble code (51). This is beacuse the burned up wire wire feeds the ECM, as well, and that supplies power to the "Service Engine Soon" light.

Now all you have to do is find the relay that is shorted out or figure out if you blew the ECM. More than likely it's a relay. The fuel pump relay is high up on the firewall about in the cetner of the engine compartment but more towards the drivers side. The other two relays are right above the battery also, on the firewall.

If you find the problem relay, you still might have enough wire on the fusable link to put them back together with a connector or something if you can't get another fusable link.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck.

Stone.

 

[DomainMasters]

Fusable Link issue

When I installed my new alternator The negative cable sliped down and started sparking and then I heard a sizzle and a pop next to the battery on the engine side. How do I tell which is fried and what to look for?

Please help you are my only hope?:confused

I suck at wiring.

Sorry about the double post. I got an error when I submitted my post so I tried it again before I checked if it posted.

Sorry about that.

Stone