Quick Question about my alternator blowing up

93GreenLX · Apr 2, 2004

I installed so glo gauges in my dash today and then went to pick up my brother in law. On the way back I saw that my voltage gauge had no reading. Then the car stalled out. Dead battery. Got jumped and drove 2/10's of a mile. I here a loud pop and everything goes dead. I go get a trailor and disconnect the belts and alternator power. Charge the car real quick put it on the trailor and get it home. When conectting the glo gauges I used a black wire for power and a brown for hot. Both were from the back of the headlight assembly. Is this coincidence or could I have blown it because of the gauges. The second time we tried to jump before getting the trailor the alternator got really hot and started smoking. I smelled a burnung smell right before it cut out the first time. I have a 200amp alternator and a 200 amp circuit breaker hooked to it. The breaker popped the first time but not the second. I think that's all the details you should need if not let me know.

Thanks

351wcoupe · Apr 2, 2004

why do you have a 200 amp alternator
sorry but just wondering

93GreenLX · Apr 2, 2004

Because of my stereo system...several thousand watts. Got it for the price of a 160 so I thought might as well go all the while I'm at it for the price

mr_woodster · Apr 2, 2004

I agree

93GreenLX · Apr 2, 2004

come on woodster, help me out guys. I don't agree you post whores

GTPhreak · Apr 2, 2004

several thousand watts?? what exactly are you running

93GreenLX · Apr 2, 2004

150 watts to 4 of my inside speakers
100 watts to 2 of my inside speaker
75 watts to one of my inside speakers

750 watts to 2 subs
So thats 2375 watts RMS and when it peaks up to like 4500 watts or something crazy not sure of the exact specs of that.

Also DVD player and Navigation.

ka0tyk · Apr 2, 2004

theres 2 wires that hook up to the gauges for your charging system. one of which comes from the starter solenoid (battery)... i believe is a really thick red wire with a green stripe... that goes to the BATTERY gauge... then from there it goes to a diode, and then out of the gauges to the alternator voltage regulator... if you dont have both of those wires hooked up then your alternator isnt charging the car because it uses that lead wire to know what voltage to output to the battery... otherwise it'd sit there and try to charge the battery all the time.

http://www.stangnet.com/tech/cluster87-93.pdf

that pinout should tell you what wire isnt hooked up properly... make sure that both gauge wire harness's are plugged in ALL THE WAY. I broke one of teh connectors on mine when I took it out for my T5 swap and it doesnt stay plugged in.

When I swapped from 89 to 93 gauges, I ddnt have the alternator regulator wire plugged in (have to move a ton of wires around for the swap) and my alternator didnt charge the battery for 2 days until it finally died. Thank god my optima held its charge for that long.

kiddiccarus · Apr 2, 2004

inside speakers?????? Do you have outside speakers too???? BTW thanks for starting this thread I was wondering if a 200W alt would be Overkill......

600W to 2 RF Subs
100 to the rear
100 to the doors
50 to the dash

plus need some watts to run the car too....... I am very interested in your dilmea with the alt....

ka0tyk · Apr 2, 2004

you dont necessarily need a 200 amp alternator. I think its pretty overkill.

a stock fox mustang draws 50 amps MAX at full load. thats with EVERYTHING possible on in your car. ac, fan, lights, brakes, mirrors moving, etc etc...

thus why a 65 amp alternator was installed in some mustangs before going to the 75 amp later on.

your amps do not draw all at once at 100% maximum... with those amps listed you prolly are hitting around 130-150 amps... a 3G 130 alternator with an optima battery and capacitor would work fine. some 130 amp alternators are known to put out 175 amps with simple mods to the brushes and such...

93GreenLX · Apr 3, 2004

can overkill be bad though. For the price I paid it costs the same as a 160 which is only a little bit more than a 130. So I figured for the price go for it. Do you think that it was coincidence that it fried when it did or is there ANY way that the dash overlays being hooked up could have messed it up. I really don't want to hook up this replacement and have it fry also

kiddiccarus · Apr 3, 2004

well Going to the 200 amp will give me plenty of growing room and will not cause any ill effects

Quick Question about my alternator blowing up

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