1989 Nissan Truck Fuse Link blew

Tiny
MACNOODLEMAN
  • MEMBER
  • 1989 NISSAN TRUCK
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 167,000 MILES
Help! My sons 89 Nissan is in electrical distress. While driving it one of the fuse liks hanging off the battery blew. Melted insulation and burned wire, etc. When it went it took out the tail lights, and disabled the dash and interior lights and all the guages. My echanic is stumped. I replaced the alternator. It WAS bad, but it's still blowing fuses. To add to things, now it's idling rough and is choking out during acceleration. I'm out of ideas. Battery? Voltage regulator?
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 AT 10:14 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
FISHERMAN
  • MECHANIC
  • 937 POSTS
Hello !

You have a melted insulation wire touching Ground somewhere.

You have to follow all the wire harness until you find the problem wire.

Probably with the "heat" of the short circuit the "insulation" of the wire gets melted and the inner copper gets expossed and touching the frame gets grounded.

Good Luck and let us know on your findings!
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Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 AT 10:56 PM
Tiny
MACNOODLEMAN
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  • 3 POSTS
My mechanic swears he's traced the harness all the way thru. He also did continuity checks looking for the ground. Between us we can't find it. He's called inhis dad (family shop) to help us with a fresh set of eyes. Dunno yet.
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Sunday, January 20th, 2008 AT 5:26 PM
Tiny
MACNOODLEMAN
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
$500 later, it seems that when the alternator blew, or nature decided the fuse link had had enough, it blew the link. The 15 amp "jumper" fuse wasn't adequate since the amperage going across the Link can surge up to 60 amps. Good to know. We also noted that the charge light in the dash actually acts as a stimulant for the rectifier in the alternator. Since the rectifier wasn't. Rectifying, the alternator ws putting out 18 VAC-ish, or some non-DC voltage. Since 12 volt lights don't like that they all blew. GOT it back today, so far so good.
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 AT 7:39 PM
Tiny
FISHERMAN
  • MECHANIC
  • 937 POSTS
Finally!

Well. Congratulations!

You were Lucky that the "surge" didn`t "kill" your ECM !

Best regards and good Luck!
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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 AT 8:25 PM

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