3G upgraded '89 Town Car popping circuit breaker.....not sure where to start.

[sposey7]

Hey guys.

This morning my 180 amp circuit breaker popped on the way to work. I'm running a 3G 130 amp alternator from a 94 Mustang and upgraded the wiring to 4 gauge as recommended.

I noticed that there seems to be a load when the breaker is engaged, but seems to run better after it pops. I don't really want to bypass the circuit breaker, but need to get the car home.

Any ideas where to start?

Thanks!

[DerekTheGreat]

Check the wiring you put in for any shorts or chaffing. Double check your install's wiring too, the thing is popping for a reason, I wouldn't bypass it until I figured out how. A tow truck is better than the alternative.

[sposey7]

Makes sense. I'll double check the wiring.

Also, I noticed some coolant residue on the breaker itself. I replaced the upper hoses last weekend due to one peeing coolant.

Once it's home, I'll test the output and hopefully eliminate the regulator.

Thanks for the advice.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

What material are your cable ends made of? If you use ready-made cables from the parts store they have steel ends, those will rust and corrode and jack up the resistance and heat up and generally cause all sorts of trouble.

Also, a stock panther doesn't have enough electrical draws to overload a 130-amp alternator, have you added some aftermarket power hogs such as a big amp and subs? If the only things attached to the breaker are the battery on one side and alternator on the other, then maybe you gotta suspect the alternator as a culprit. But if you have the battery on one side, and both alternator and amp/subs on the other, even if the amp/subs have their own fuse downstream they can still trip the breaker every time they try to produce a big "thump".

[DerekTheGreat]

That would certainly cause a short. The electrical pixies are finding a direct way to ground, after that breaker I'd say.

[sposey7]

Looks like the battery was possibly shorted out. Swapped a spare in and so far, so good.

[sposey7]

Also, one thing's for sure.....a voltmeter is in the near future. The "AMP" light may as well be burnt out!!

[His Royal Ghostliness]

That would certainly cause a short. The electrical pixies are finding a direct way to ground, after that breaker I'd say.

What would cause a short? All the tripped breaker says is it saw more current than it's supposed to pass. Could be as scary as a direct short to ground, or as simple as a power spike when a big-juice item kicks in. Can't know without knowing wtf he's got wired to that breaker and how...

Looks like the battery was possibly shorted out. Swapped a spare in and so far, so good.

Throw a voltmeter on the battery, see what it reads. You wanna know for sure if the battery was the issue, or the alternator is just behaving for the time being... Also wtf is a shorted out battery? Like, she dropped a cell or two, and is now running at lower voltage all the time? Yeah that would make the alternator act stupid cause it'll never see the voltage it expects to see from a good battery...

Also, one thing's for sure.....a voltmeter is in the near future. The "AMP" light may as well be burnt out!!

Key on engine off, does the AMP light come on and stay on till you actually start the engine? If yes the light is good, if no the alternator is not charging. And the reason I'm saying the alt is not charging has nothing to do with the alt itself - Ford went full retard on these cars and made them so all the light is fully inline with the alternator turn-on wire, therefore if the bulb burns out there will be no current flowing thru the wire and the alternator will simply not turn on and start charging. In comparison Ford trucks of the same vintage have a bypass resistor wired in parallel with that warning light, if the bulb burns out the current will just redirect thru the resistor and still reach the alt and turn it on like it's supposed to. Why Ford chose to cripple the cars in such a way is beyond me...

[DerekTheGreat]

What would cause a short? All the tripped breaker says is it saw more current than it's supposed to pass. Could be as scary as a direct short to ground, or as simple as a power spike when a big-juice item kicks in. Can't know without knowing wtf he's got wired to that breaker and how...

That's what I meant. My mind says short= current has easy access to ground= high levels of current leading to breaker/fuse failure. Of course something on a circuit that draws more current than what that circuit is rated/fused for will do it too. In no ways am I an electrical mastermind but I've never had anything burn to the ground from my handiwork...

That is weird about the AMP light. The light will come on if voltage is higher than expected too, right? The F-series truck I had did, was putting out 18v lol. The windows and stuff went up & down super fast and lights were very bright.

[gadget73]

Bad alternators can also do it, the breaker will trip from excess current going in either direction. If the engine seems to run better with the breaker popped, its possible the alternator is dinked internally and draining the battery. If thats the case. he'll figure it out pretty quick since the battery will go dead. Either way I'd be looking for possible causes of extreme electrical load.

The amp light only comes on when the stator voltage is below what is expected. It doesn't really tell you if the alternator is working correctly, it just tells you when its definitely doing nothing. The alternator can fail in a number of other ways that won't trip that. If the light doesn't work though, the alternator won't either. It gets +12v through the I terminal on the regulator through that bulb. No bulb, no voltage to turn on the regulator, no chargie. Turn the key on and look for the light, that will be all the testing you can really do for it.

[DerekTheGreat]

The alternator in that truck killed the battery. Was a first for me. Battery light would come on sometimes, hit or miss, voltmeter was reading high. When I probed it and saw 18v at the battery it was no wonder everything was super bright & fast. Surprised nothing blew.

[sposey7]

In that case, the AMP light works as it should.

[gadget73]

High voltmeter usually means either a bad voltage regulator or loss of battery sense voltage. It goes full field and runs 18-19 volts. That does bad things to the electrical bits.

[kodiak]

A low voltage condition will cause hi amp draw. A bad battery could have caused the problem.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[sposey7]

I think gadget may be right. Started popping the breaker again. I disconnected the plug with yellow, green, and white wires and it quit popping. Can't test for voltage since the multimeter bit the dust.