Reverend Sin

Ok, so like a huge retard I wasn't paying attention when I put my battery back in a couple weeks ago after changing the solenoid and reconnected without checking. Fiz, pop, smoke, bad things happened.

So the Alternator itself was dead, battery came through it fine, solenoid fine. Dead car for two weeks. Replaced the alternator, charged the battery, huzzah she starts! Uh oh, idle surging. Friend who was helping me out hadn't properly replaced the wiring on the new solenoid. Turned the car off and made sure it was put back appropriately (so far as I can tell from what limited diagrams I could find online) That seems to have fixed the idle surging issue.

The problem I'm having now is that the amp gauge will not climb out of the orange. I had the new alternator tested (twice) and the battery tested (twice) and still nothing. The car starts and runs, but the battery does not seem to be getting re-charged so if I go far from home I'm just going to end up losing power and paying to have it towed home (for a second time, long story short, went to Denny's and died on a long dark road at 2am, no power in the middle of the road, no cell phone, no lights anywhere in a 3 mile radius).

I know I probably fried some wiring somewhere, so my questions are:

1.) IS that likely the issue or could it be something else?
2.) If the wiring IS fried, how difficult is it to replace for an amateur?

Reverend Sin

I searched through the threads I could find in the stickies and couldn't come up with an answer to my problem, is it really that easy that I should instinctively know the answer?

Liquid_02

Probably fried the fusible links if "bad things happened". They're near the battery and go to your solenoid. I've replaced them a few times, and eventually just went with a larger cable due to my upgraded 2g Alt.

Reverend Sin

Thanks Liquid, I'll look into that. What is a 2g alternator? I asked the people at Schucks specifically if there were any other kind of alternators that were worth getting and they said there was basically no difference. -_-

Liquid_02

2G is what our cars came with, instead of screwing around with the 3G alternator (that's the one off the 94-up cars), I just had my 2G upgraded to 110amp

Reverend Sin

Yeah I did a bit of research last night before bed and figured out what the 1-2-3g alternators were all about, don't think it's something I have to worry about at the moment lol

What I meant by "bad things happened" was when I crossed the polarity a line of smoke went from the battery to the solenoid and went *pop*. I'm having trouble remembering if I replaced the solenoid just before that or just after that but I'm almost 99.9% positive it was after. Had to change a few blown fuses as well. So far I've replaced Solenoid, Battery Cables, Alternator and the alternator is not charging the battery. The belt is on appropriately, everything runs appropriately so far as I can tell, I'm just having the issue with the alternator recharging the battery. (And it may or may not be running a bit rich, I don't know how to diagnose that though and a friend only said in passing that it sounded as if it might be)

Liquid_02

If you popped some fuses that makes me believe even more that it's a fusible link or two. Just check all the fusible links near the solenoid. I bet you the alternator one is toast.

Reverend Sin

Ok, so I've identified the fusible links (took about two seconds, but I "am" amateur at this) but I don't see any obvious signs of damage, no apparent burning or corrosion. Is there another way to test them? It also doesn't look like something that would be very fun to replace.

Reverend Sin

Is this something I should just rely on the local mechanic shop or is it something I can do myself. The fusible links don't appear to be damaged but unlike the inline fuse for my sound system these are just black rubber with a wire gauge listed on them.