Fusable link blown

[Samurai0]

Hi,

The day after I finished the brake drums, mentioned in a post earlier, I got out to my car to finish the brake job with cleaning the brake parts.

Went to start the car and nothing....

Opened hood, and no hood light lit....

Removed black ground terminal clamp, no spark. It's dead Jim.

So, I used my Allstate car service to jump it with one of those booster packs. The dude arrives, snaps on the Red, then Black clamp RIGHT ON THE BATTERY TERMINALS (stupid).

Then the green 14Ga fusable link going into the Alternator hisses like one of those loud 4th of July rockets with a spectacular puff of odd smelling white smoke.

Great. I dispatch that jerk, and goto Pepboys to get a new battery and some fusable links. I make a quick fix at about 7:30pmEST, and the engine turns on, but idles rough.

I go back to the driver's seat, and see the BATTERY light lit.
So maybe according to the factory service manual, fusable links are supposed to partially protect components it is linked to.

The Alternator may be dead. At this point, I will be bringing it to a reputable service station, since the Dealerships have no respect for cars older than 10 years.

Anybody have this problem?

Is this related to changing the Drum brakes (in some wierd way)?
Thx.

[fredjacksonsan]

Hey Samurai. Had the same problem(s), fusible links and rough idle. The links you've got done right it seems, but the rough idle, I would check the positive battery cable. On some of the FI models, any fluctuation in voltage can cause a bad idle situation (and of course this discussion assumes we've both done all the previous "rough idle" repairs ). I had a bad positive cable, looked ok on the outside but was a little powdery on the inside. Once replaced, things got better. And on a previous Mercury, had the same thing happen, let it go too long, then the car died completely one day 'till I replaced the positive cable. Check it out.....

[fredjacksonsan]

Oh yeah, and I don't think the problem was with the rear brake replacement. More likely an adding up of all the little voltage things.