hey everyone, just installed a new alternator for my 1200 ute, had the battery on a battery charger while doing the job, when all was said and done. I put the battery back in, connected positive first and then as soon as the negative cable went on it sparked, (small), but behind the battery where the cables and wires run, a puff of smoke came out and that electrical burning smell was in the air. From what i could see only one of the wires from the positive cable had been burnt. Tried to start the car, and no sound was heard at all.

Anyone know how to fix this problem or has anyone had it before? is it just a wiring replacement from the positive to the starter? and how thick/thin would the wire have to be? Desperately need help.

Cheers, Sam

1. Remove the defective alternator
2. Replace the burnt cable
3. Clean pos & neg cables and battery terminals

it's not the fusible link is it?

Always hook neg first then pos from my experience.

Yes, that is safer so that when tightening the POS cable even if the wrench touches the body of the car, no sparks will occur.

Not sure why this happened...seems like it earthed out somewhere. I'd check you've wired in the new alternator correctly (is it a stock replacement unit?), then check to see if any of the fuses blew when it shorted out.

Do you have a wiring diagram as you need to work out what the wire was that's gone crispy.
As mrbarista pointed out, it maybe the fusible link that has blown....which is what it's supposed to do if it sees a short, to protect the major electrical components from damage. If it is the fusible link you will need an auto elec to make you up a new one.

What colour was the wire?

I grab my links from ford falcons at the wreckers. Xd-xf falcons if you find them

checked the wiring, turns out that the ground wire was shaving up against the positive terminal on the alternator, fixed problem and all works fine! cheers

Cool...good to see it was an easy fix in the end.