Alternator spark

Got home from nationals and went out to check my transmission fluid level (I had previously fixed some leaks). As I was shifting through the gears I noticed a spark shoot up from where the alternator is. Went to investigate and saw this. At first I thought it was the negative battery cable to close to the alternator. But small spark stayed there after I moved the cable. Any ideas? Could be something simple like just cleaning the bolt. But wanted an opinion.

 

I have never seen that before, but it would appear that your alternator has a short to the case, and the case is shorting to the bracket. The charge wire attaches to the rear of the alternator. I would inspect the harness and connection looking for breaks in the wire casing or problems where the charge wire attaches to the alternator. You may have to replace the alternator, the harness, or both. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will respond. Glad you got the transmission back together. How is it working?

 

So far so good. No leaks. Put the new transmission pan on. Came home to no leaks but the spark kinda hit me in my moment of triumph lol. Thanks for your help.

 

Heres a different picture where the spark happens. You can see it looks like the bolt and bracket are welded together from where the spark happens. Update, I think the alternator was dying cause now the car wont start. Like it just died. Ill have it tested this week.

 

Nothing more than a bad ground, remove and clean it up... The arcing can damage the rectifiers...

 

Tom knows his electrical positives and negatives.

 

Ill do that. Thanks for the advice!

 

This may be a stupid question, but as I was taking this apart I noticed that the top bolt wasn't connected to the alternator. If you look at the second picture, shouldn't that bolt go through the square piece on the bottom right corner of the picture?

 

what did it go through?

 

There was a bolt that was just connected to the engine harness. Looks like the previous bolt was cut and the bottom half of the bolt was still in the alternator.

 

Yeah you are correct bolt should go through the ear on alt, apparently the belt is too long...

Still sparks are due to bad ground condition...

 

I was inspecting the wire harness and it looks fried. Any idea where I could find a replacement? Didn't see one at Oreilly

 

Upgrade to a 1-wire alt. Pretty easy and gets rid of a lot of clutter.

 

That's a good idea, thank you.

 

Melvin's sells them.