Well, over the last couple of weeks, and a LOT of overtime at work, I have fix my car that seems to have a bad alternator.

About 3 weeks ago, I took one of my headers off to get rewelded due to a noisey leak. I had a friend help out with the nuts on the lower side of the header becasue my hands are a little bigger than his and her could reach it easier. Well, in the process of taking the header off, he undid the alternator power wire and put it aside. He told me it was a live wire. (this will come back to bite me later.)

So the header gets welded and put back on. Nothing special, just reverse everything I did to take it off. SO, I get it all back together and the family and I are headed north about 3 hours to Torch Lake. Well about an hour away, the car starts to die (just like an alternator or battery) and leaves me on the side of the highway. Luckily my sister and her family were traveling with us so my kids and wife just jumped in their Tahoe.

Call the tow truck, $250 later, the AMG is in the garage. So I take my winter beater and head north for the weekend. Once I get back home I start to brain storm and think of what it could be. I jump on the forum and get to reading. Voltage regulator seems to be the common element here. So I buy a new voltage regulator for about $56 shipped to the house. Spend a few hours trying to figure out how in the world the alternator comes out. Finally I ask my indy and they stated that it's only a 2.2 hour job......they never told me how it comes out, just that it was a 2.2 hour job, remove and install. I get to thinking the alternator comes out the front and not the bottom......that is a good thing.

I get the alterntor out and new voltage regulator in and all buttoned back up and start it up......same thing. Volts read 11.3 and dropping. DAMN IT!!!!

So now the overtime comes in, I research how much an alternator is and WHAMMY, overtime it is. I buy a new alternator for $340 shipped. Get the old one out and the new one in........STILL NOT THE PROBLEM.

Now I'm like WTF.....so I call my friend that helped me take it out and asked him if the wire grounded or arched......Yup. So now I know it's got to be a fuse or relay. So I check all my fuses in the car, I mean ALL OF THEM, and the relays.....checking those for resistance witht a meter. Everything checks out fine.

At this point, I am ready to kick the car to the curb. So I back track the wire and find that it is bolted to a post in the tranny tunnel. I go to losen the nuts and one of the 2 posts arched on me. So I disconnect the battery (I know, I could have saved myself the trouble in the first place by doing this) and losen the nuts. Then I get to thinking, where does this go.....So I get in the car under the passengers floor board is a distribution block with about 5 fuses that are 100+ amp fuses. Well imagine my suprise to find one of those fuses blown......$3.90 fuse to solve my problems......and that was from the dealer.

Well, the car is back on the road and running great. Moral of the story, just disconnect the battery next time.

 

...Or check your buddy's work to make sure he didn't leave any cable's dangling which might short against something

At least you figured it out, and also learned how to work on the car a bit :P

Aaron

 

Yup, that's kind what I waas thinking. I asked my buddy what he undid to make sure I put it back to gether the same way. Just didn't know it grounded out. Oh well, you live and learn.

 

Under the passenger floor board? can u post a pic of where exactly? im suffering the same symptoms

 

If you go to the passenger side, pull back the carpet from under the glove box area, take the styrofoam block, and remove the metl kick plate that sits ontop of the distibution block.....then you will see the black distribution block.