alternator upgrade, few months later problem

[3ryce]

so i followed the instruction on the alt upgrade and it all works and worked well. however today after starting it up and i finally got the heat going! i noticed the plug with the diode looked funny.

heres a picture, any ideas on what may have caused this? it was running before i took the tape off and ya. heres the pic.

almost forgot, another question is where or what is the second ground wire for on the climate controls?

heres a picture. i found on what the one on the left side was for. the right side i dont know. also im gonna add that the design of these things and taking them apart and putting back together was not well though out. having the screw in the back and reaching around n stuff. man a PITA for sure.

well thanks for the help guys.

mainly worried about the first part of this post.

ok heres the picture.

Edited January 9, 2014 by 3ryce

[Walter Moore]

Too much current through those wires. I have forgotten, were they connected to something?

[3ryce]

yes the yellow wire and the used to be while wire next to it were connected.

thats how the DIY said to do it too.

[3ryce]

and heres a link to the upgrade too

Dave's 1972 Datsun 240z: Alternator Upgrade

[Zed Head]

You probably have a short on the yellow wire. The white wire is connected to the battery and the alternator charging post. There should not be much current through that wire. Disconnect the T plug at the alternator and check the yellow wire for continuity to ground. Reconnect and check resistance through the alternator. You should have no continuity and high resistance, respectively.

[3ryce]

ok will do. this may sound dumb but how or like i guess where should i connect the ohm meter to the alt to check for resistance on the alt? well its a multimeter i should restate that.

[Zed Head]

Connect one lead to ground, either the battery negative or the alternator case, and the other to the yellow wire. Measure resistance, in ohms.

[3ryce]

alright sounds good. i will check that here in a min i gotta find my multimeter tool. also just while im at it. here is a picture of the starter area where im told the fuseable link is located but i cant seem to find it or maybe im looking for it but it doesnt look like what i think it should look like. anyways heres the pic.

[Jarvo2]

How big is the new alternator (amps)? I think for mine I just used a 50 or 60 amp and its been working great.

[Zed Head]

It's the wire with the white plastic connector, connected to the same post as the battery cable. It's an in-line fusible link.

[3ryce]

ya dave its the 280zx 60amp alt. i checked for resistance and seem to have nothing. maybe i did it wrong. i can take pictures of where i connected it if you would like. actually i may just do that. give me a few for that.

but

there was a time that i had been messing with the fuel relay (the big one under the dash) i replaced it with a newer relay and on that it has a yellow wire. are they connected somehow? cause i do remember that one time i had hooked it up a little wrong and the wires got hot. maybe it sent it all the way to there? but then again maybe not. however after taking my datsun to doug at crawfords he unhooked the inline fuse and its been using the mechanical pump ever sense.

oh and thanks for that fuseable link help. haha i feel dumb now. but now i can look into the upgrades for that and modernize it a little.

[3ryce]

ok that plug and the one next to it i put the red in where the yellow wire is and the black end went to the neg side of the battery.

ok then when i connected the two yellow wires from each plug together i got some numbers to appear on the multimeter thing. anywhere from 180-150 ohms.