Alright, so a couple of weeks ago… my battery died (like the lights were left on or something, but were not) I tried jumping the car with a friends car and it started up, but when the positive cable came off the battery the car died immediately. So, figured it’s the alternator.
Replaced the alternator last night in the car, went to jump the car to start it up… and when I connected the jumper cables the ground clamp started sparking (last one I put on to complete circuit). I was like wtf, that’s weird. Anyways, put it on… jumped the car, car half turns over with my friends car but doesn’t start fully. I turn it all the way off, then try turning the key again and nothing at all. My friend then starts telling me there is smoke coming from the cables, by the time I got out of the car ran to the front… the jumper cables were literally melting all the plastic around the copper wire and had to rip them off (thankfully was wearing gloves they were fucking HOT!).
Tried using my “Booster Jumper pack” thing this time literally just to the cables of the car without the battery. Figured the battery might be dead so pulling a lot of charge. And I couldn’t even get the lights or anything to turn on in the car when I put the key to accessory on ignition, when I checked the voltage on the jumper pack it literally drained the FULLY charged battery pack all the way down and it took it like 15 minutes to recover from 14.7v to 11.*v
WHAT THE HELL? I suck ass with electrical and I’m assuming it’s some sort of short… but it wasn’t doing this before the alternator was installed, but even so the alternator shouldnt have anything to do with it considering the car isn’t even on? I’m completely lost as to what the hell happened.
Side note that may be related: When my friend jumped the car the first time when we realized the alternator was fucked and battery was dead, there seemed to be a problem with the ignition turning off… like we could remove the key from the car and I could still use power… i.e roll down the windows, turn on headlights, etc… which we assumed was the reason that the battery was dead in the first place… don’t know if this has anything to do with it… but may be relevant.
Keep in mind I never touched ANYTHING but the alternator since then… HELP!
hahahaha