Had a major meltdown the other day. graemlins/angry.gif

Driving, car sputters and stalls, no electrical. Push it to safety, figure out the positive battery lead is shorting across header (trunk mounted battery) about 3 minutes elapse before I can break the connection.

Now, battery was toasted as were the pos. and neg. leads (melted the insulation) and the alternator fried. Replaced alternator/battery/leads with all new and have done a decent search of the rest of the wiring for any visual damage, which I found none.

My question is on a resistance reading I am getting from the 1)positive lead hookup on the alternator to 2)ground (eng. block to frame). I am getting an initial 50-100 ohms and it increases slowly for as long as I keep reading it. Not sure if this is a 'normal' reading or if it indicates another short/problem with the system. All the fuses are still in place, none blown, and the lines from the starter to the fuse block are hooked up (rewired them to clean up the loom). Also, the battery has not been hooked up yet or the pos. lead to the starter...want to cover all the bases before putting power to it and creating more problems.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance...

Your test is basically measuring the internal resistance of all the goodies in the alternator and (assuming you have the small + wire hooked to the alt) the resistance of all other accessories in the car. So you are trying to spot any short circuits?

So using voltage / resistance = current (12 / 100 = .12) you are drawing about .1 amp. This is definitely not a short circuit. You may see much higher resistance if you just test from your main + wire (removed from the alternator) to ground. This is effectively testing all the cars electrical system without the coils/diodes, etc in the alternator. The rising resistance sounds like the battery in your meter may be going low.

Thanks Corey, yeah I'm trying to make sure there isn't another problem before I connect the battery to the starter. I wasn't sure if the reading I got was 'correct' for the situation. It does make sense though.

Trying to avoid a complete rewire (it needs it) but I may save that for the end of the year. :( Not something to look forward too.