alternator keeps blowing

[86chevybanshee]

ive gone through about 4 alternators in the past 3 weeks, what could be going on that would make them go bad?

i had a buddy tell me to ground it or something, i cant quite remember what he sed

Any help would be great
thanks

 

[diesel4me]

blown altenators????

It could be lots of things--a dead short somewhere,a bad battery with shorted plates resisting a charge,bad grounds(make sure you have a ground strap from the engine block to the firewall and the frame),bad battery cables can cause a high resistance and cause the altenator to work harder,,also voltage "spikes" that occur with loose connections arcing somewhere can blow the diode trio's inside the altenator(bad grounds are often the cause of this)--and so can a battery loose in its hold down allowing it to bounce against the hood (ZOT!)while going over big bumps and shorting it out momentarily can cause early altenator death too--

Some guys with those big amps for a "Boom Box" have lots of altenator woes too--I guess not only do the stereos draw lots of juice,the bass notes cause a voltage spike to travel back to the altenator and damage the diodes--I'm no expert here,you might have to ask a car audio place for advice if thats the case...I think they put a capacitor in somewhere to fix that problem??.

 

[walla2k5]

Sounds like the alt. is overworked to me. Quit buying them from Schucks ($40) .step up from a 36amp to 100 amp.

 

[86chevybanshee]

wow, that sounds exaclty what is going on, the battery keeps coming out of the battery tray and bouncing around, its happend quite a few times, also the negative battery cable was all messed up. im still trying to fix all the previous owners mistakes, i would not be the least bit suprised to not find a ground strap anywhere on the engine or the frame,

and we dont have any schucks around here, its autozone (just as bad, i think i paid about 50 sumthing dollars for it, and its only 78 amps i think, but thank god for their lifetime warranties!)