My son has a 92 civic lx and the alternator quit working yesterday. When I removed it, it smelt like it had got really hot and burnt. So knowing it was fried I got a reman one from shucks today and installed it. They tested it before I left the store and it tested fine. We started the car and within 30 seconds I could smell burning wires and seen smoke coming from the alternator so I shut the car off and disconnected the battery. I jumped on the forums and did a lot of reading and testing but came up with no sure fire fix for the issue. New battery was installed 2 days ago because it was old and battery tested good and is fully charged. Fuses and all connections are clean and secure. Only thing I haven't tried is to replace the white/blue wire the comes off the alt to the under hood fuse box. Not really sure if that is the fix or not. I disconnected the wire and started the car and the alt never got hot or smoked. Is there something else besides the wire that I should be checking? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Is your battery possibly installed with the terminals reversed?

What wires got hot and burned on the alternator? Post pictures.

 

Wow quick response time.. Nothing got completely burnt I shut the car down before anything was able to burn. The white/blue wire got hot as did the alternator. The windings in the alternator that you can see almost look like they are discoloring. I cleaned both ends for the white/blue wire and reconnected it while I put in the alternator. And the battery isn't connected in reverse. My son said that the battery light came on while he was driving home last night and he could smell something like wires burning when he shut it down and I looked at it this morning and seen the alt was fried. He was having issues with it before we replaced the battery and then it got worse. I even tried a different battery to see if maybe the power the alt was producing wasn't being accepted by the new battery for some reason but there was no change.

 

Are the battery and alternator cables swapped at the hood fuse box?

 

Nope those are correct also. Back track both of them.

 

Check whether the large white alternator cable that runs from the alternator to the hood fuse box has a short.

 

Whenever a power wire is warm or hot to touch, it is grounding out. A few years back, my cousin was giving me a hand with a starter replacement and he left the power wire up against the frame of the starter. In the middle of the night, my alarm went off and smoke started coming from under the hood. Luckily, I was able to remove the battery and find out the issue before my car caught on fire.