So I was cleaning up my engine bay and making sure all my connections were tight and when I went to check my alternator I accidently pulled the positive off the alternator. It sparked of course and now all the lights and radio wont come on. I thought I blew a fuse, but as I was looking they look ok. I'm going to replace them anyways, but what else should I check?

 

Will it start? There could be a fuseable link in line with the wire connecting the alternator and the started

 

Nope, it wont turn over.

 

Hey Rick,

Stuff happens.

1974corvetteowner is right. There are these things called fusible links. They are essentially short sections of wire that are designed to melt down in case you do just what you did. They are incorporated into the wires, usually down near the starter. They look like oversized hard rubber wire insulation on the wire itself. Once they melt they create an opening in the wire - an open circuit. They can be repaired or you can replace the entire wire.

Did you check the fuses in the fuse panel under the dashboard?

[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

 

Yup, sure did. The fuses didn't look so good so I went ahead and replaced all of them. Would a fusible link melting cause all of those problems or just the not starting one? Right now my car is getting absolutely no power to anything.


*edit*

I checked the fusible links (I've got two near where the wires go into the fusebox.) They have clear rubber coatings and I am not sure what to look for. As far as I can tell they look good, but I'm not familiar enough with them.

 

Hmm, I traced more of the wires back and it doesn't look like the wire coming off the alternator has a fusible link.


Odd. The problem seems to have auto-corrected itself. I'm wondering if there was just a latent charge in the wires somewhere. The bad thing is that since it's now fixed I don't know what was broken or what I did to fix it.

 

Hi Rickcusaf, sorry to hear about what happened but the others are right, you melted at least one fusible link. In the 74 service manual on page 12-48 they show a picture. The first FL to check is at the starter solenoid on the " B "terminal.
A fusible link is like a fuse in that once it blows it must be replaced. The difference is that it is made of wire so you have to splice in a new one.
Can you tell me again what year your car is, and do you have a service manual? PG.

 

It's a 1976 Stingray and I have a haynes manual. My girlfriend saw a tattered book laying next to my desk and threw it away. She didn't realize that I owned an original service manual =(.

*edit* Any idea what would cause everything to suddenly start working again?

 

The fusible link is basically a smaller gage wire than the circuit it is protecting. On my 73, it is a loop of wire with a braided sleeve on it that's plugged into the harness going down the firewall on the passenger side. If I'm reading my wiring diagram correctly, the link is a 14 ga wire in the 10 ga circuit that runs from the alternator down to the starter.

If the wire (which has battery voltage on it all the time) that you pulled off the alternator sparked, then you must have touched it to ground which could have popped the link (not very likely though as the 14 ga is little tougher that a fuse). Maybe in your checking, you moved the link such that it remade continuity. Or maybe there's just a weak connection in the circuit. It does appear (after looking at the WD 'til my eyes crossed) that if you lose the fusible link, then you have lost battery voltage to just about everything. Hope this helps.

 

lol I'll be having a late night tonight I think figuring it all out. I have my WD nailed to my wall in the garage and I feel ya on the eyes bleeding. I really appreciate all your guys help too.