I had a little fire in my 84 tonight on the way home. When I started the car, I heard a little chirp which I thought was the belt, but a few miles down the road, I heard an unusual buzzing or humming and then the volts warning light came on and voltage was dropping, so I pretty much figured it was the alternator. I was on the connector between Milford CT and the Pkwy so I couldn't stop right away. I got off an exit and some smoke came out from under the hood and when I opened it, the alternator had a little fire going on, which I smothered with my shirt.

There doesn't appear to be any damage -- for instance, there doesn't appear to be any melted plastic on the underside of the hood and all the connections to the alternator seem fine. Is there anything else specific I should look for as far as damge goes? The car stalled before I could shut it off when I pulled off the highway, but the volts were really low. I recall hearing that alternators were somewhat of an issue in C4's.

I called AAA and they got a flatbed out pretty quickly and they got it up to my house. Hopefully it's just a matter of replacing the alternator.

Thanks for any help.

 

Can you spell "Toast"? Probably the only damage is to the alternator itself. An excellent replacement is the Powermaster. Pricey, but they seem to last in my experience with my 87. (Which ate alternators for breakfast!)

 

Sounds like you got luckey it didn't burn more. Hope you carry a fire extinguisher. I do now after my lil engine fire.

 

I just looked at it woth a flashlight and the wire connector has a little charcoal on it so I suppose I'll be replacing that as well. Any suggestions on the best way to do that? Can I just splice in a new connector or should I dig it out and replace the whole wire? I took it out of the plastic tube that it's in and it only seems to be crusty around the connector itself. The insulation seems ok and there doesn't appear to be any bare wire showing through.

 

Hey, where did you get your powermaster? vinnie

 

Vinnie, for forum info, I got it from Eckler's. 86-91 (140 amp) #41382 @ $269.99. Used to be a bit cheaper, but got mine about 5 years ago. Good upgrade from the 105 amp. For the 84 it is #41383 @ $219.99 Chrome-plated yet! :cool: :smash:


[Modified by vetteseniorcit, 10:42 PM 4/19/2004]