Hello everyone- not sure if my problem is electrical or something else:

I just got done putting on new starter, battery cables, and headers. I get power (dome light, radio) and the car cranks, but I get little puffs of smoke from the alternator & from the positive side of the battery post. Did I wire something wrong? I know for sure alternator is hooked up correctly, and I have positive battery cable going to the starter, and negative is grounded at the alternator bracket.

Any ideas??

Thanks for reading.

Bill

the negative batt cable is grounded at the alt. bracket? I would have it grounded to the engine block myself. I assume it only smokes like you said when cranking? Did you change the way the neg. cable was grounded or was it like that before?

Smoke indicates a bad connection. You need a bare metal-to-metal connection for battery cables. Scrape a spot bare on the alt. bracket, or move the cable to a bolt directly on the engine (remove engine paint around the bolt hole). Re-tighten your cable connections, should be fine.

Edit: Smoke coming from the Alt. itself, or from where the cable connects???

How did you wire up the 'pigtail' that's supposed to connect to the + terminal??

What year is your car?

I have a 1972 Mailbu. The ground cable has always been at the alt. bracket - I just hooked it back up the way it was. It only smokes when it cranks - but you can just barely see the smoke. As far as the wiring goes - I just put it back the way it was - I'll scrape off some paint & see if that helps.

Thanks!

Do you have a ground going from the motor to
the firewall? Or only the ground directly from
the battery to the alternator bracket?

I have no idea about a ground from the motor to the firewall. I just know the ground goes from the battery to the alt bracket (that's the only one I messed with at least). It actually looks like the car would turn over - the fan turns and the starter is making noise, but I guess I'm not getting any spark? the car never turns over.