Diagnosing Electrical Problem

[IceBlade]

Okay so car sat for awhile and when I started it up the fusible link blew.

Now I put a temporary fuse in and start it up and yay it starts. Problem is it's draining the battery or something. So i take out the battery and boost it from my other car. Starts up, running fine, take off the booster cable and it dies. Any ideas as to what this could be? The battery light on the dash doesn't light up either. Thoughts?

[SoCal LS-L]

Originally Posted by IceBlade

Okay so car sat for awhile and when I started it up the fusible link blew.

Now I put a temporary fuse in and start it up and yay it starts. Problem is it's draining the battery or something. So i take out the battery and boost it from my other car. Starts up, running fine, take off the booster cable and it dies. Any ideas as to what this could be? The battery light on the dash doesn't light up either. Thoughts?

You might wanna check for a grounded main wire from the alternator.... or just a faulty alternator, depending on if you mean the battery drained when the car was off or while it ran.

[IceBlade]

Okay! After some more trouble shooting it seems like you're right. There's definitely a short somewhere.

But I don't know how to check the main wire. What do I have to do in order to test if it's grounding somewhere? And if it isn't could it be a short in the actual alternator?

Edit: Would there be an easy way to tell if it's the wire or the alternator like bypassing the main wire and putting it directly to the battery and seeing if there's a charge?