'90 burb electrical, fusible link?

[b79holmes]

Hi all,
A couple weeks ago my alternator started making some bearing noise, so I sent it out for a rebuild yesterday. I got it back this afternoon, and as I went to install it, my hand slipped. The alternator fell onto the wires that normally bolt onto the back of it and I was suddenly reminded that I completely forgot to disconnect the battery! Man was that stupid...

There was a bright spark from where I dropped it, immediately followed by a big cloud of smoke coming from the area of the battery. Now it seems half my electrical system died. Wipers, blower motor, brake lights and hazards all still work, but the headlights, dash lights and interior lights don't. The engine will still turn over, but it seems I have no ignition.

After looking through a handful of forum posts both here and elsewhere, the symptoms most often seems to happen because of a blown fusible link. The ones I saw mentioned most frequently were near that electrical junction on the firewall up and inboard of the brake booster. I see two of those black useable links, and I tested both with the ohmmeter. Power seems to be getting through.

I know there must be more fusible links on this circuit, but I'm not sure where to look. I did pretty thoroughly check around and under the battery (where most of the smoke came from) and I don't see anything that stands out as melted or damaged.

I'm kinda at a loss at this point, so if anyone has suggestions for things to check out, that'd be greatly appreciated!

The truck is a '90 burb V1500, bone stock and mostly original.

Thanks in advance!

[kwmech]

There is nothing factory at the battery that would really cause what you describe. Fusible links at the starter are more likely the cause. That is unless one of the pig tails fried either at the neg or pos side post. The pos side post has an 8 ga wire that goes directly to the alt post and the neg cable pigtail goes to the core support.

[b79holmes]

Thanks! I'll take a look around the starter tomorrow. Tonight, I quickly checked with my multimeter and it seems I am getting 12 volts at the firewall junction. I know the connections between the battery, the alternator, and the grounds are all still functional. Does it make sense that my starter still turns over if a link is blown down there?

[kwmech]

Originally Posted by b79holmes

. Does it make sense that my starter still turns over if a link is blown down there?

Possibly, I think there are 2 links down there. I haven't been able to get to rewiring my burb yet and bring them up top

[b79holmes]

Well I checked the two links down there. One was at the end of the black wire, and the other in the middle of the red wire. Both seemed to have a solid connection from before the black link to the end of the wire.

Looking at my battery, I realize I forgot to mention that it looks to have been changed to a different style at some point and I think the wiring was changed (the wire from the alternator is ridiculously long.) I'll include pics of that.

Do you know which wire in the engine bay actually goes to the fuse box? If I could find that one, I may be able to follow it back until I find a bad connection.

[kwmech]

Check continuity on the orange wire or pull on it and see if it acts like a rubber band. The wire with the small eyelet should be purple, that is the wire that comes form the ign switch for cranking the starter motor over. what's with all the wires at the battery? Side post battery is correct