97 civic dx

Started the car up this morning, and noticed a funky burning smell coming through the vent. I opened to check the hood only to see that my alternator wire (the positive wire that connects on top with 10-12mm nut) is becoming red orange hot! Man this is bs, I had the hondata cpr installed a month ago with no problems! Can somebody pin point where I can start to look for a short? Please help me out! This is the only car I have to drive!

 

Anything guys? Help me out please!

 

Examine the charge wire between the alternator post to the fuse box and to the positive battery post. Also check all grounds between the engine and chassis/frame.

Frayed wires, chaffing of wire shielding, corrosion, pinched wires... anything that could pose a problem needs to be examined.

 

There's really only a few spots where the positive cable goes through, I would think it's likely the alternator itself has an internal short. But it will go through the fuse box and down to the starter then back to the positive battery terminal.

 

I will check the positive wire to the fuse box. The alternator IS a rebuilt unit from advance auto, so I can still return it since I have 1 yr warranty on it.
If anything, can't I just run a new and thicker gauge wire from the alternator to the fuse box? Should I do the "big 3" upgrade?

 

It is possible the wire itself has an opening and is somehow touching something plastic or even metal. Just follow the wire. You only need to do the big three if you have an aftermarket stereo and are pulling extra amps.

 

Ok here is what I found.. The alternator only had one nut that holds the positive battery wire in place. So what I did was put a nut to hold the black plastic piece on top of the alternator, and another to hold the positive wire in place.. It was sparking like crazy, and there were no ground or bare metal between the black plastic piece on top of the alternator and positive battery to alternator wire. So far so good, no burning hot nut!

 

weird.... i have a new alt and new battery with added grounds and im not getting 14.4V when running. Im wondering if i need also need to have a nut holding down the plastic and another nut holding down the cable.

 

Sounds like you have a short somewhere or something is draining the battery.. I would do a continuity test on it.

 

An internal alternator short will burn up the alternator itself, not the cable. The fact that your terminal is "glowing" signify's you have a HUGE load on the alternator charge-back wire. There is an ELD that is designed to regulate the current the alternator produces. If you have removed or bypassed this, you have a problem for sure.

Given your limited information, I would start by disconnecting the alternator charge wire, and perform a continuity test between that wire, and battery negative. If you have continuity, you have a short to ground, or some other load on that wire itself. Trace the wire and find the damage to the wire. If you have no continuity at that point, your load is beyond the alternator itself. Your ALT SP SENSOR fuse should be blown, or the battery fuse will be blown. Regardless, a fuse should have blown due to this problem. This tells me at least, that your wiring does not conform to the way the manufacturer intended, and you owe us an explanation as to why you modified the factory wiring, and how you did it.

 

Modified the factory wiring? I did not mentioned anywhere on my post that I modified the wiring.. The only thing I messed around with was at the ecu connector because I installed the hondata coil pack. As I stated earlier, the alternator is suppose to have 2 nuts, no? One to hold down the black plastic and the other to hold the alternator positive to battery? Anyways, I did suspect the fuse to blow but it didn't which hit my puzzled as well. As of right now, the nut is not heating up or anything and Ive been driving for a whole wk with no problems. Not trying to start an argument but is been running fine so far.