1998 Saturn SW2

My wife left the lights on the other day and discharged the battery.
After several unsuccessfull attempts to jump start the vehicle, I proceeded
to buy a new battery. The car started right up and was fine for a day or
so. Then the battery was dead again. Thinking it was the alternator, I
bought a new one. Before I put the new one in, I tested the alternator
wires and gave the vehicle a final once over. I found what appeared to be
the problem. The fuseable wire between the starter and the alternator was
blown.

So I had the old alternator tested and it was producing around 14
volts. I returned the new alternator, reinstalled the old one and put in a
wire with a 30 amp fuse, between the alternator and the starter. Thinking I
had found the problem, I started the car. All was working fine, but there
was no power going from the alternator to the battery. In fact the voltage
in the battery was decreasing.

Does anyone know what might be the problem? It's a fairly simple
circuit and I have already tested the wires and there is voltage coming from
the battery through them, when the key is turned on. Also, what is the
amperage on the fuseable wire? I called the local Saturn dealership and
they could not tell me what the amps were. But they were willing to sell me
one..

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.


--Kevin

 

Sounds like you have a short in the circuit. Fuses don't just blow. You
haven't located the problem yet. To blow a fuse you have to apply more amps
to the circuit than the fuse can handle. You have to find the reason the
fuse blew. Usually this is caused from a "short" which means somewhere in
your circuit you have power touching ground. Don't forget the car chassis is
ground so anywhere you have a bare wire or a loose wire it could be touching
something that is grounded. I would check the connections on the starter &
alternator. When disconnecting the battery, make sure that you always remove
the ground first. Vise versa when reconnecting. Make sure you connect the
positive first then the ground.

I love it when people find a blown fuse, then replace it thinking they fixed
the problem. Don't people understand what a fuse does????? The fuse is
protecting the wires from high amperage. Without a fuse, you would have just
melted the wire and probably just torched your car. If a fuse blows find the
problem and fix it.

 

Did you check that 30 amp fuse? It probably blew. That's nowhere near
enough, the alternator can put out up to 90-100 amps on many models.