ERA Forum Technical Help (Editors Note: If you haven’t been on the Electrical Rebuilders Association’s new Web site—you’re missing out on the best information sharing in the industry. New members and the old faithful are making the Technical Help Forum the place to go with rebuilding questions, and all sorts of technical info. Following is only a small sample of what’s going on.) POST: Hi everyone, hope I get this right the first time posting. This may be a long post. Have a 11/2000 Ford Focus SE l6v 2.0L has Ford 6g alternator Lester no. 8260 (with £601 white regu- lator). In September of last year we rebuilt the unit and all was well until June of this year when unit came in with the rectifier melted and the rotor was BLUE from heat. I sent them another rebuilt unit that I had on the shelf and advised them to check the car for prob- lems due to the damage. About a month later (July) they call and say the car is back again and they send me the car. We removed the alternator and this one also had a melted rectifier and this time the stator and the rotor were blue from heat. I purchased a new unit from WRS (part no. 1-2349-01fd). We installed the unit, we also ran a new positive cable from the alternator directly to the bat- tery. (The original wire went down to the starter and the connection at the alternator was damaged.) After the installation and charging the battery (yes, we load tested it and it is good), the alternator was done and we started checking the system and found that the alternator was maxing out just with the standard loads. It was pumping out 100 amps (reading off of the positive battery cable from the alternator). I do not have my readings (sorry) but it was just not acting right on the car, (it was tested prior to installation with a NW Regulator test plug). If I remember right at an idle it would be OK, but as soon as I took the rpm up it would max out. I told the garage customer that they needed to look at what was causing this problem. I was thinking field monitor, SIG computer problem? They took the car and told their customer to take it to the dealer. Well, the car came in today on a hook, it did not go to the dealer but did go to another shop that put in a new computer. The customer picked up the car yesterday and drove it about 100 miles and that was it, the battery light started to flicker and the car died in the road. We get it in today and take the alternator back off and the rectifier has already started to melt down, the posi- tive post is loose in the rectifier assem- bly and you can see where the plastic around the positive post is already melting. I have ordered another alter- nator from WRS and will have to wait for it before I can do any testing on the car tomorrow. Has anyone run across anything like this? Does anyone have any suggestions on what could be causing this to hap- pen? What am I missing? Once I get the new alternator on I will take all my read- ings again and see if it is still acting like it did the first time around. REPLY: Yes, a few years ago same thing happened to me with a 2G alter- nator. Burned up two of them. Loaded tested two-month-old battery, tested OK, but load was coming from battery. Installed new battery, everything went back to normal. Something in battery was making alternator max out. Customer had no more trouble since then. Change the battery and see what happens. REPLY: If a battery IS shorted, usu- ally it will get hot while charging it with a charger or alternator. My best advice is what was already posted. Change the battery and see if you are still at 100 amps. I would think about 70 to 80 with lights and air on would be normal for this car. I have been hav- ing much better luck on 6Gs since switching to OEM rectifiers. REPLY: We all have those that give us a fit. If you were reading 100-plus amps on the battery cable and if all your other vehicle loads were mounted at the solenoid you would be seeing only what was going through the battery. These are all parallel paths for current to flow and you would be hooked up on the battery path only. So it looks to me that the bat- tery is bad or the wiring going to it is grounding out somewhere in the loom if that cable is in a loom. Assuming there is no other connection between your amp gauge and the battery + post. Quickest way to eliminate the battery is disconnect and sub another in with a very good set of jumper cables. Hope I read your post right as to where you had your amp meter hooked. If not then move it to the battery path and see how many amps the battery is consuming. POST: Hi all, I have an update on this problem. Installed the new alterna- tor today and have the following read- ings. The first set of readings is on the positive cable that is coming off of the alternator and goes directly to the bat- tery. Beginning battery voltage 12.6; at idle no loads 14.93 30a; at idle w/lights 14.8 33a; at idle w/lights and ac with blower on high 14.8 80a; at idle with just the blower on h