[luckynumberslevin]

Good day gents! Well earlier this week i was driving the truck around (62 GMC) and after a day of driving, the truck stalled and the cab filled with smoke. I lifted the hood to find the power wire, from the positive terminal of my rebuilt alternator to be melted all the way to the starter. Its a delco 3 wire. It stalled previously that day but started with no issues. One thing i noticed while driving it in the last year, is at idle the volt gauge red just over 12v and while cruising about 13.

So my question is, what if anything did i do wrong? And was the problem possibly the alternator. If so, what should it be replaced with?

 

[kc8oye]

First off, what gauge is the wire?

second of all, why no fuseable link to prevent this from happening?

thirdly.. it would seem that wire grounded to something... most likely the hot exhaust manifold.


ASSUMING that's a typical 10ga alternator wire... I'm not aware of anyway to draw that much current through a wire that size to get it that hot.. short of a short-circuit to ground.. (at least, not with what you would have on board a 62 GMC pickup)

I had the same thing happen to me once.. I Figured that wire was ok laying on the intake manifold... I forgot a stock iron intake had an exhaust cross-over passage that got hot enough to melt insulation... 'ooops' thankfully the fuseable link went first and just killed everything in the car.. left me dead-sticking it at 70mph.. very interesting expierence.. lol

 

[matt167]

I'v seen it happen before, on a rebuilt alternator. Shorted internally, causes the alt to get HOT, caused the alt to basicly meltdown and the wires melted from drawing amperage

 

[kc8oye]

This is why a fusible link should always be installed!

 

[matt167]

This is why a fusible link should always be installed!

Should have noted. The Vehicle I had seen it happen to was a factory stock 2004 GMC 1500 with a 5.3. Everything the factory installed was there except for a factory alternator. The rebuilt was an Advance Auto/ Autozone brand IIRC.