Alternator died after replacing starter?

[BJM]

I hope the 2 are not related. The starter died and I replaced it. The car cranks twice as fast as the old one did and everything seems fine. It was fixed over a week ago.

Today, I sold the car to a guy and he calls me up not 5 minutes from my house and says the car won't start up again after gassing up. I drive over to look and sure enough the car has no voltage or very very low voltage. I boost the car and the car can at least turn on lights and the power windows work slowly. The scanmaster says only 10 V with my other car boosting it. After boosting it for about 2 minutes we notice the alternator is smoking and smelling like its burnt. Is this a fluke? Can the alternator fail like this?

I don't think the guy feels I tried to snow him but I feel terrible about it.

 

[turbo2nr]

Need new Alt. Not too expensive.

 

[Real-T]

This may be a little bit of a stretch but when the new starter was installed, was the output wire from the alternator (also located on/near the starter) reinstalled correctly ?

Just to double check, insure it is connected properly and to the correct post.

The extreme case is that the wire is let dangling and then shorts the alternator output voltage to the block or frame somewhere causing the alternator to burn up....

Just a thought.......

Otherwise, the alternator was destined to fail and the starter change was just a coincidence.......

 

[BJM]

On these cars the line to the alternator goes straight from the battery, not via the starter like a lot of cars. On the starter there are two ring terminals holding 3 fusible links and the large battery cable on the main power feed. The other terminal is the crank signal from the key. I have wracked my brain and I am positive I put it back together properly. The car worked beautifully for over a week after the starter was swapped.

This must be simply horrible timing.