10 replies to this topic

[kaise7]

tightening dizzy clamp my  spanner fell against alternator and sparked, engine died now wont turn over, can hear a sort of electrical sqeak from somewhere offside engine bay, anyone any ideas, im sure there is a simple answer to this ?... 

[Artful Dodger]

Check the fuse box for a blown fuse:)


Moral of the story, ALWAYS disconnect the battery when working on vehicle electronics!

[A-Cell]

Could be the fusible link wire has burnt out and saved big damage.
You need the battery connected if you are going to adjust timing whilst engine running, eg to use strobe. So actually the moral is to ensure that the terminals on he alternator and for that matter the starter motor and solenoid are all insulated correctly before attempting this.
Good luck getting it sorted.

[kaise7]

why oh why ............ checked for fuses, cannot see any blown, will have another look though..................where is the fusible link wire, i didnt smell any burning/melting etc

[tiger99]

Yes, it could only be a blown fusible link, if your model has one. It is NOT one of the normal fuses, as no standard Lucas fuse is rated high enough to be used in the alternator circuit. . On most older Minis, the alternator is directly connected to the battery via the main terminal of the solenoid.

 

It is also possible that the main terminal of the solenoid, with main battery cable and stack of brown wires going to various places has fried, and is making poor contact, hence the noise.

 

The other think that often happens, with the original pot type battery terminals, is that they spread and make poor contact, and when an overload comes along, they get worse and make hardly any contact, which again would explain your symptoms. Best replaced by the split clamp type, with an insulating cover on the positive.

 

Or you could have fried the battery, but it takes a fairly sustained short to do that.

[kaise7]

could this have damaged the started, i seem to be getting power to started but even with a full battery its no turning ???..

[kaise7]

or does this just mean a wire somewhere in that spagetti of wires is fried :-( cheers anyways very helpful as always, cheers

[A-Cell]

If you have a fusible link it will be a brown wire in a mica wrapped (dirty grey woven) sleeve running from the alternator plug into the harness. Otherwise as Tiger says

[kaise7]

ha see this, yes its melted through a bit but does not look fresh, found the sqeaking or more a buzzing coming from a small black electrical fitting its buzzing when switching ignition on !!

[Dan]

  What car is it?  It's easier to help if we don't have to guess at what equipment the car has.

[kaise7]

i know but it was only a steer i needed ! problem sorted thanks.. it was melted out wires