Alternator Cable Burned Off

[GA Cowboy]

Hey y’all, I recently noticed that my truck was having electrical issues. When I would drive down the road the radio would cut out, my lights would dim, and my blinkers wouldn’t blink. When I tested the battery I was only getting 12 volts with the truck running at idle, then when I looked at the alternator I noticed one of the cables was entirely burned off. I wish I knew more but I just wanted to ask how I should go about replacing this wire, and which wire it is. Thanks.

[kazoocruiser]

Thanks for the picture. You can get a pigtail to replace the wire that is burned, or splice a wire in with a new eyelet for the alternator post. The wire that is broken / burned open is the charge wire for the battery. From the looks of it, corrosion inside the wire caused too much resistance, causing heat to burn it up.

Disconnect your battery cable before you work on that wire. It carries arky-sparky amperage.

[RustyPile]

Pull off the black rubber cap and you'll find the overheated terminal under it.. If you elect to splice in a "pig tail", don't just crimp the connections.. Solder and heat shrink them.. Use at least 12 Ga. wire...

[rsavage]

It looks like a new alternator. I would look closely at the harness to insure that you didn't have a dead short that caused the alternator wire to burn off. That harness also runs across the core support and feeds your headlights, markers, turn signals etc. Is your battery the correct one, securely fastened down and not shorting against the fender? Is the part of the harness going to the alternator not resting against the exhaust manifold and being burned through causing a short? If it were me, I'd be checking more just not putting a new piece of wire and a connector on. If everything is ok and you fix the wire, check your charging rate as your short could have damaged the voltage regulator. Good luck - hope that it is a simple fix for you.

[rjs53]

Definitely check the alt. I had a internal regulator quite working and it sent everything to my electrical system, luckily I noticed the bright lights and alt gauge pegged. Instead of a flushable link I had the 50amp fuse which gave out but things were starting to smell hot.

[Myoldtruck]

After you replace that section of wire. Make sure things are clean and tight. I use a dremel to clean dirt, rust, and what not from connectors and terminals. Check your ground wires. There should be a few ground wires under your hood. My 71 gmc i just got had fire wall to both valve cover, passenger inner fender to frame, voltage regulator ground. I added a battery cable from engine block to the frame, and a 6 gauge ground wire in rear of truck from frame to bed.

Check for all your grounds.

[GA Cowboy]

Thanks for the responses y'all. I cut off the burned end of the wire and crimped a new end one. Everything seems to be working well now, we'll have to see how long that lasts lol.