Help with burned alternator cable

[shoccwave]

The ground cable (the one with the "O" ring connector on it) shorted out and melted the plastic shield on the alternator and burned off half of the "O" ring. I have a new alternator that I'm going to put in...my question is...where does that black ground cable run to? Can I just ground it anywhere in the engine bay and what gauge wire should I use to replace the damaged cable?

By the way, if you're wondering why the cable shorted out...it seems I didn't tighten the nut that holds the ground cable on the alternator and the nut fell off so it was bouncing around touching metal and arching.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

The ground cable (the one with the "O" ring connector on it) shorted out and melted the plastic shield on the alternator and burned off half of the "O" ring. I have a new alternator that I'm going to put in...my question is...where does that black ground cable run to? Can I just ground it anywhere in the engine bay and what gauge wire should I use to replace the damaged cable?

By the way, if you're wondering why the cable shorted out...it seems I didn't tighten the nut that holds the ground cable on the alternator and the nut fell off so it was bouncing around touching metal and arching.

It's not a "ground cable;" it's the opposite of that, it connects to the positive battery terminal. If it were connected to ground, it wouldn't have been arcing when it was touching the grounded chassis.

The same wire became corroded and eventually failed on my car. I found a replacement on a car in the junkyard and clipped it off along with about 18" of wire. The wire is fairly thick, so you can't splice in the new one using conventional methods. Instead, I used a heavy guage wire splicing kit from Lowe's for about $3 each -- you'll need two.

 

[shoccwave]

Oh, my bad I thought it was a ground cable. So if that connects to the battery, can I just run a direct wire from the battery to that terminal? If that's the power then what's the other plug for?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Oh, my bad I thought it was a ground cable. So if that connects to the battery, can I just run a direct wire from the battery to that terminal?

No, the wire goes through the fusible link before reaching the battery. It carries a lot of current, so do it right.

If that's the power then what's the other plug for?

The field windings.

 

[shoccwave]

Cool, definitely want to do it right. I just got done reading some story on here about a guy whos DSM cought fire...not a good thing. Thanks for the help Oh, by any chance would you have a link to that kit you were talking about? Or are you just talking about those little pieces where you put the two wires side by side and a blade comes down to link the two wires together?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Oh, by any chance would you have a link to that kit you were talking about? Or are you just talking about those little pieces where you put the two wires side by side and a blade comes down to link the two wires together?

God, no. Those things aren't good for anything; especially not for repairing a wire that carries more than 40A.

It was something like this:

GB Electrical HSB-28 Butt Splice Kit 2-8 AWG

I'm sure you can find them at most all hardware stores.

 

[shoccwave]

Ooooooh, okay. I've seen those before. Looks like I'll be off to the junkyard tomorrow morning. Thanks a lot, dude you've been one of the most helpful guys on here.