Electrical issue

[Damkid]

i'm having a minor electrical issue with my V6tiva and i'm looking for some advice, for those who don't know, it's originally a 90' LX

Basically what the problem is, is after the engine runs for a short period of time, the centre fusible link blows, i have been using a 40 amp fuse cartridges and so far have popped 2 of them

the fuse does not blow at all until the engine runs for a bit, which leads me to beleive there is no short circuit. So what i'm thinking (hoping) is that since the alternator would probably have a higher amp output (Being the V6 alt.) that could very well be the problem and i just need to use a bigger fuse, but before i do i figured to get a second opinion

i have not modified the stock charging wires, so in a sense, i took the alt. wires off the stock alt. and bolted them to the V6 alt.

Thanks for any help

[wybnrml]

Makes sense. A stock Festiva alternator is like 40-50 amp and the V6 alternator is probably like 90 amp.

[Damkid]

Yes that part does makes sense to me as well, but would that mean i should put a 90 amp fuse in? that would not make sense, which is where my confusion comes from

[wybnrml]

Yes that part does makes sense to me as well, but would that mean i should put a 90 amp fuse in? that would not make sense, which is where my confusion comes from

Yeah, I see what your saying.

[grey]

the fuse does not blow at all until the engine runs for a bit, which leads me to beleive there is no short circuit.
Thanks for any help

oh poopy-poop.

what is on that that circuit? head lights or something? I bet on a short
or simply overloading the circuit

[JohnGunn]

the fuse does not blow at all until the engine runs for a bit, which leads me to beleive there is no short circuit. So what i'm thinking (hoping) is that since the alternator would probably have a higher amp output (Being the V6 alt.) that could very well be the problem and i just need to use a bigger fuse, but before i do i figured to get a second opinion

If it takes a bit for the fuse to blow, that could be because some event places an additional load on the circuit a bit after it starts or because the current trough the fuse is close to its rating and it takes that bit of time for the heat to build up till it blows.

You could test that by getting the next smaller fuse and seeing if it would blow that immediately or at least in a shorter bit of time.

You could also use a clamp-on multimeter to read the amp value through the circuit to see if it is close to 40 amps.

If you decided to test it with a bigger fuse, it might be a good idea to run it in gradually increasing short periods of time, feeling the wiring after each to judge if it is building up too much heat.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[WmWatt]

Or put a bigger pulley on the alternator to slow it down? The fuse is there to protect something. You probably shouldn't be trying to force that much current through the system.

[JPT]

How's the battery? A weak battery can cause the problem you're experiencing. Shortly after I got my Festy, it would do the same thing you're describing. I checked everything. All was fine, but it would eat the center fuse on an almost daily basis. I bought a new battery and things have been fine ever since.

[Damkid]

I have an Optima dry cell battery, so no worries on the quality of the battery :lol:

I talked to my buddies who all work at a garage and i asked a few of the mechanics and they all said that it sounds like my voltage regulator my be fried and the alt. is over-charging, the symptoms they describe are exactly what is happening, so i will dis-connect the wires off the alt. and start the engine to see what happens, if the fuse doesn't blow then i'll swap in my spare alt and that "should" (Hopefully) fix the problem

[Pu241]

If I'm not mistaken there have been numerous Alt upgrades up to 90 Amps (MPV van Alt) and little if any upgrade to the wiring.
Believe Bastiva just got upgraded to 65 amps.

The only time I've lost a 40 amp center cartridge fuse was when I killed the battery and the battery was asking for more amperage than the fuse would allow. This only happened when the Alt could provide 40+ Amps which was at highway speed.
So I'd get about 5-10 miles before the fuse blew.
If I had just let it idle for 20-30 mins I might have been fine.

[bhazard]

Maybe your fan is pulling too much?

[Damkid]

If I'm not mistaken there have been numerous Alt upgrades up to 90 Amps (MPV van Alt) and little if any upgrade to the wiring.
Believe Bastiva just got upgraded to 65 amps.

The only time I've lost a 40 amp center cartridge fuse was when I killed the battery and the battery was asking for more amperage than the fuse would allow. This only happened when the Alt could provide 40+ Amps which was at highway speed.
So I'd get about 5-10 miles before the fuse blew.
If I had just let it idle for 20-30 mins I might have been fine.

I will definately remember that info John, just in case un-hooking the alt. doesn't work

Maybe your fan is pulling too much?

It wasn't plugged it at the time

[JohnGunn]

I talked to my buddies who all work at a garage and i asked a few of the mechanics and they all said that it sounds like my voltage regulator my be fried and the alt. is over-charging, the symptoms they describe are exactly what is happening, so i will dis-connect the wires off the alt. and start the engine to see what happens, if the fuse doesn't blow then i'll swap in my spare alt and that "should" (Hopefully) fix the problem

I can second that. When my alternator failed a couple of months ago, the "charge" error light came on and stayed on while the belt screamed loudly. My guess was that it suddenly decided that it needed to produce as much current as it could. A newer alternator completely corrected the situation.

John Gunn
Coronado, CA

[hermit]

"The only time I've lost a 40 amp center cartridge fuse was when I killed the battery and the battery was asking for more amperage than the fuse would allow. This only happened when the Alt could provide 40+ Amps which was at highway speed.
So I'd get about 5-10 miles before the fuse blew.
If I had just let it idle for 20-30 mins I might have been fine."

i tried this theory and it didnt work out, had 4 fuses with me, blew 3 to get 15kms closer to home, 4th one i decided i would idle for 30 mins, fuse popped while idled and was forced to use a direct wire to wire fuse that i made in the drivers side seat while waiting for a ride =/

[MTec007]

"The only time I've lost a 40 amp center cartridge fuse was when I killed the battery and the battery was asking for more amperage than the fuse would allow. This only happened when the Alt could provide 40+ Amps which was at highway speed.
So I'd get about 5-10 miles before the fuse blew.
If I had just let it idle for 20-30 mins I might have been fine."

i tried this theory and it didnt work out, had 4 fuses with me, blew 3 to get 15kms closer to home, 4th one i decided i would idle for 30 mins, fuse popped while idled and was forced to use a direct wire to wire fuse that i made in the drivers side seat while waiting for a ride =/

i hope you dont mean use used a peice of wire as a fuse.. that will cause serious issues