Main fuse keeps blowing

[danray35e]

Ok here is the deal. 89 fi Festiva. A couple of years ago I replaced the fusible links with same rated fuses, so If I had problems I could replace easily. Good thing I did, because a problem has finally arrived. My wife drives this car to and from work. Yesterday she was coming home from work and stopped at the store. When she went to start the car again, absolutely nothing happened. No power what so ever. I got to messing with it and realized one of the main fuses had blown. As it turns out, its the fuse that takes power directly from the alternator. I replaced the fuse and it started right up and ran fine for a few blocks and I noticed that the charge light in the dash was on. I came to a start and left the engine running. I noticed that when I opened the door, the seat belt did not retract. I decided to drive it on home before I wound up getting stuck somewhere. I got home and killed the engine, then tried to restart it, sure enough the fuse had blown again. I replaced fuse and it started and ran fan again. Took if for a ride around the block and it happened again.
Today I started looking for shorts in the wiring but did not find any. My question now is should I be looking for a short or should I suspect that my alternator is faulty and dumping too much into the wire and blowing the fuse?

[ntxstiva]

I'll check

I have a factory service manual with all the wiring detailed in it. I'll check on it. It's for a 93, but it should be pretty much the same. Where do you get the fusible links. I bought some from Napa, but they didn't have the smaller size to replace the brown links.