Magic Smoke and Fuseable link

[tbearatkin]

Started my M1009 today at lunch at work. It started right up like usual. I looked at the volt meter as usual to see when the GP went off. The Drives side alternator started to squeal a little like it always does at start up when the GP are on. However this time the volt meter was hard red on the left. Then the vehicle shut off like the key was shut off. All 12volts lights etc are dead.

I smelled electrical smoke so I opened the hood to check it out. Smoke under the hood looked like the drives side of the engine and maybe behind the air cleaner. And the Big red wire on top of the drivers side alternator was pretty warm.

Have not had time to look at it yet but I will guess I had a fuseable link go out. Now to find out which one and what caused it.

Glad I have free towing with USAA.

I hate it when the magic smoke escapes out of wire. It never goes back in.

 

[Warthog]

We have an APP for that

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?122571-Fusible-Links-101

Sounds like you GEN1 took a dump. Time for a rebuild.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?136886-Alternator-and-starter-parts-amp-repair-kits

The likely bad link is the 12v main feed. It controls the fuel shutoff solenoid on the injector pump.

 

[tbearatkin]

Thanks for the quick link and shortcut to trouble shooting. The Gen1 light had been glowing slightly sometimes. Notice it more in the winter time when I turned the blower motor on. Will check the 12v main feed and then have the Gen1 checked. Will post the results, it will not be this weekend wife scheduled a wedding out of town for us to go to.

 

[NovacaineFix]

Had something similar happen to my M1009 recently. Basically Gen #2 started overcharging (32 volts) and causing Gen #1 to freak out. Everything ran fine, with the exception of the light show on the dash.

After a week, I finally got time to have Gen #2 re-built by a local auto-electric shop.

Smoke is the life-blood of every electrical device. Sometimes you can lose a little and be fine, but lose a lot and it's dead.

My Gen #1 light comes on at 1st start, but goes out when the idle smoothes out, I believe it is just a RPM issue.

Good luck.

 

[tbearatkin]

Found where my magic smoke escaped from. The fueseable 12 gauge wire (blue) at engine wire harness block on the driver side by the GP relay. Looked for others but did not appear to be any others with smoke missing. Now to fix that and get my Alt 1 checked to see if it went bad or was it just 30 year old wiring that just failed.

 

[cucvrus]

Common problem. Just replace the fuse-able link with correct gauge wire. Blue is the correct gauge. I have seen maxi fuses in place of the link and orange fuse able link wire also. Both work. Good work finding it. It is old and that is not correct eye on the end. Someone else was working on that wiring before. Good Luck. I hope I helped you out.

 

[tbearatkin]

The Drivers side alternator (alt 1) went bad. $25 rebuild, + cost for a roll of fuseable link, waterproof crimp connector, some liquid elec tape, some heat shrink for the connections as well. While I was at it I had a new front neg battery cable made up, the old one you could tell the small wire had some heat issues in the past. $32 for a new air filter from Napa those have gone up in price. It is now up and running but do need to get a new radiator cap I noticed it was leaking a little.

 

[Warthog]

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it fixed.