electrical gremlin

[bmadd2402]

while I was installing my fmic, I detached my horns, and they were shorting out. well I cut the wires and taped them, and recharged my battery. well my car battery drained again and went to jump it and my buddy hooks up the cables backwards. NOW whenever my car starts, none of the interior accessories work until I rev the engine and start driving. I also had the alternato tested, and autozone said it was bad. I thought I could have blown the ACC relay, but I tried switching it out, and nothing. Could a grounding problem be the answer??? any insight appriciated.

Also, does any USDM car's alternator swap out with the rb25? if not anyone got a good one?

[accel junky]

I think most people get the Rb25 Alt rebuilt. Although I have heard also that the KA one can be used by drilling out one of the holes or something.

[Slo_240sx]

Your friend owes you an alternator. When you hooked up the alternator backwards he blew the stator out and possibly the regulator. Your battery will keep dying because your alternator isn't charging. Your lights aren't working because your alternator isn't keeping the voltage up and when your rev it it spins the alternator faster making it charge.

Your Battery is just for starting. After the car is started the alternator takes overs and the battery does nothing unless you have a heavy load and maxing the alternator output amperage out.

just switch out alternators, I don't know where you can get one and charge your battery before hand. That way your alternator isn't maxing itself to charge the battery up.

Once you got that done, undo the negative battery cable. take a test light and hook it up to the cable and touch the neg battery post. If the light lights up you got a short. The brighter the more of a parasitic draw you have. On some cars though they may glow a little bit for keep alive memory ex. radio, clock etc....

If its bright though, start pulling fuses one by one and have a buddy look at the test light. tell him to tell you when it goes out. When it does then look up everything on that circuit and go thhrough it again to make sure nothing is shorted and if there are any big components in it that may be shorted out internally.

Your alternator may be shorting itself out causing it to draw down the battery also. So start with an alternator and tell us what happens next.

-Alex

[bmadd2402]

so.... do you know if there are any alternators that interchange with the rb25's, or do I have to rebuild mine? I was gonna call McKinney motorsports. thanks again for the lesson. one of these days I'm gonna quit fing things up and my cars gonna go fast.

[Slo_240sx]

run a search I hear people somehow make the KA work. If not bring it to a machine shop and see if they can rebuild it.