what would cause this???

My alternator plug is melting. I can smell plastic burning from inside my car while driving it. Not good.

Too much power... add a few more grounds...

Could be the resistance. Have you checked it with a multimeter?

Whoops, closed my phone connection at end of breaj, sent message for some reason...

Yea i would check resistance, sounds like its overcharging and producing too much...

Id just check the usual stuff. Inspect that wire from end to end and check your other connections. How long have you had this exact setup with your current alternator? How many amps is your alternator rated at?

Dirtymurph wrote:Id just check the usual stuff. Inspect that wire from end to end and check your other connections. How long have you had this exact setup with your current alternator? How many amps is your alternator rated at?

new motor setup has been in for about 2 months but only driven for a couple weeks. the alternator is a couple years old. amps is 110.

going to test the resistance when i get home. was told i could replace the line with some 8 gauge wire if it was bad. that sound right for the gauge?

8 gauge is pretty good sized but it doesn't alleviate the issue at hand. That's like saying if it keeps blowing 5amp fuses lets replace it with a ten. Got to figure out where the extra juice is at. Do any electrical, stereo, or other work lately?

8g should be fine for what you got. Id check the volts at the alternator. If thats ok then Id look at the power wire and connections. Also look into your other power wires on the car as well.

Im pretty sure hes not suggesting to just replace the wire he has with 8g, hes saying IF he gets a new one will 8g be adequate. Judging by the pic Id say hes already using 8g but its hard to tell.

In some cases it can be the wire itself not being a large enough gauge, especially on higher amp setups. Very unlikely thats the case here but it happens. It would be more like running a 5 amp fuse where you should of had a 10 amp to begin with.

yeah just trying to make sure that if it is the power wire going to the alternator, I can just replace it with an 8 gauge wire. ill swing by autozone on the way home and have them test the alternator see if its doin what its supposed to.

well if its hot enough to melt plastic its hot enough to melt skin!

alternator tested good so onto wire testing.

jared said it should only have a few ohms resistance. anybody care to verify? seems right just dont want to do it more than once.

It's not grounding out somewhere against the chassis or motor somewhere is it? Since the motor work was done maybe it got squished or is rubbing against a ground spot somewhere.

Just a thought but is everything tight on the connection? The nut itself tight on to the alternator?

Could also just be a bad alternator. Have you had it tested?

he said he had it tested-good

Jarrod, he tested it on the way home. Autozone said it was good...

Is there an echo?

BTW Ive had an alternator test good once...then test bad twice at a different store.

I dont trust autozones "tester" as far as I can throw the alternator

Alternator can still be bad.

This is true. Just recently I had my Shelby alternator rebuilt, watched the rebuild shop test it on a good tester. Only to install it and have it fail in less than a mile. Put in a new alternator and problem solved.

07Shelby500 wrote:It's not grounding out somewhere against the chassis or motor somewhere is it? Since the motor work was done maybe it got squished or is rubbing against a ground spot somewhere.

thats what i was thinking but everything looks good. its odd because it started out of nowhere a couple days ago. Im going to put a new wire on it tomorrow. Would stereo power wire be ok to use? I have some 4ga and figured overkill is a good thing

oh btw tested the resistance and on the 200 ohm setting it read .8-.9 and asked greg and he said that is too much so thats why im replacing the wire.

It could be that the alternator is putting out too many amps somehow. Internal regulator may be shot. May still test good for amperage because it's not low, but rather too high? Not sure what they look at when testing. Too many amps would cause a smaller gauge wire to cook.

If Greg says the resistance is too high that may be your culprit. It could be corroded inside.

>.8 vdc is what your looking for in resistance

4g wire should possibly do the trick

you test regulators by putting them under load. not to big of a deal

Yeah that wire will work. Im using 8 gauge stereo wire along with the stock wires on my 130 amp. Is the wire you have now even the right one? I dont recognize it.

yeah its the factory wire in the loom and everything.

Oh god. I seen the intake and thought foxbody automatically for some reason lol. I should of looked closer. Im an idiot. So few people mod those cars around here that the idea doesnt even cross my mind.

echo? echo? where? where?

any updates?

i put on the 4 gauge wire yesterday and everything seems to be ok.