I Have A Friend With a 328...

I have a friend that installed a new battery in his 328 with the polarity reversed tonight. (This is absolutely not me, I swear!!) A few minutes and a bunch of smoke later the problem was resolved, but now the charging indicator light will not illuminate and the engine is not happy in the least. Smoke was from an area in the engine compartment near where the alternator is. The 69 dollar question is this: Where are the fusible links so that my friend can go in and swap them out?? Or alternatively, are there any other possibilities for the smoke and now inoperative alternator??

I told him that he was a bloomin' idiot and all that, but feel free to lump in your helpful suggestions with any advice you might offer.

Cheers and Thanks,
dce
(And Imaginary Friend..)

 

Thanks All,

No, the ignition switch wasn't on, so hopefully only diodes in the direct path of the current flow were fried. (Please Enzo don't tell me I fried the wiring loom.) When I started the car (After getting the polarity correct.) everything in electrical seemed to work just fine, although I was pretty quick about simply getting it back into the garage. I friend sent me the wiring diagrams, I'll go through those tonight and see if there are any obvious places to look. Certainly the Rectifiers in the VR seem to be a logical place to start. Woe!! I think my charade has fallen apart!!

Thanks again for all the help, any further ideas or experiential info is greatly appreciated.

Best,
dce

 

Hi All,

Got Pietro up on jack stands and took the wheel well off. The words that appeared at my lips when I saw the alternator were of the four letter variety. Went back to the archive to figure out how to get it out and came across this rather enlightening and useful post: http://www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/256120/93784.html

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get the damn thing out of there without loosing more blood than coolant. I'll update you when I learn more. Thanks again for all the help.

Cheers,
dce

 

Thanks Verell,

I got the heat shield off, and everything is out, all I have to do is drain the coolant so that I can move the pipe. I cannot see any way to remove the alternator without moving that pipe. Any thoughts on a replacement PN if I just want to replace the old Alternator?? I pulled the brushes and they are a bit worn-plus the rear is soaked in oil from the now visible leak. I'm definitely looking at a rebuild, so if I can buy a cost effective replacement I would happily do so. I found a thread in ferrarichat with 308 PN's, but the addition of the splatter shield on the rear makes me wonder...BTW my bolt was in backwards!! And for recreational purposes I found my oil leak. The dipstick tube looks like the likely culprit. The cam covers don't seem to be leaking, but the dipstick tube sure does. More on that later, after I get the alternator out and look around more carefully.

Thanks again for all the help. All in all it's kinda depressing that I could be so blindingly stupid, but on the plus side I'm learning a great deal about the mechanical design/condition/servicing of my car. Not a bad trade all in all.

Cheers,
dce

 

Hi All,

Well I finally got the damn thing out tonight. (Having a job really takes away from the amount of time I can decote to my projects.)I had to take the case apart to avoid having to move the A/C housing. Now I know where all the smoke came from when I played executioner. The "Small" oil leak at the dipstick tube placed a significant amount of oil into the alternator. Apply twelve volts of yum yum DC, hold for several seconds and POW!! you have a really neat fried alternator/VR. The windings of the alternator are as fried as the VR, so my guess is I'm looking for a complete replacement. I'll still bring it by the local alternator rebuilding place tomorrow to see if it can be salvaged, do you think they'll believe it came from a VW?? (Somehow whenever someone hears Ferrari the price triples!!)
Does anyone have a Bosch, or any other reference/part number that I can use in California to source another replacement Alternator?? It's worth a case of Gouden Carolus to the winning bidder!! (I did look throught he archive, but the only references I found were for 308xx alternators.) Lastly- it probably was going to fail soon anyway with the ridiculous amount of oil in there, so I'm going to chalk this experience up to preventative maintenence. How's that for delusional??

Best,
dce

Cheers,
dce

 

Well, I've finished the alternator portion of the project. I couldn't find a replacement so I had it rebuilt at our local Autoelectric shop. ($249.00 Including upping the output to 130A.) Important note: You cannot remove a whole alternator from a 328 without either a) Splitting the case. (Which is what I did.) or b) Moving the A/C Compressor. (Which is not what I did.) Putting it back together in the car wasn't very hard, while moving the A/C looked monumental. (And I'm not sure even then that it would have come out.)

Now to the bad news. The engine idles poorly, bogs down under throttle, backfires, has little/no throttle response, and is generally miserable. My first guess is the TDC sensor. Either that or the EDC?? Or??? I've poured over the schematic and I canot find anything directly in the current path that I would have fried. Any Ideas would be very welcome. Thanks to all for getting me through the alternator project- I wouldn't have attempted it if not for your help, and I would have had many more issues than I did. (Kurt- I think I owe you a beer!! Where do I send it??)

Cheers,
dce

 

I'm in!! I'm done, and I'm finally finished!! It was the 10A fuse on the O2 protection relay.

In summary this is what I've learned:

1. If you're going to be an idiot and put a battery in backwards, have the common sense to do it on your grandmothers' old pinto.

2. On 328's the alternator cannot be removed without either splitting the case of the alternator, or moving the A/C compressor and possibly the entire engine. Separating the case and reassembling it while in the car is not particularly difficult if you have it jacked up properly.

3. If you have a disastrous electrical failure and the car isn't running correctly look at the 10A fuse on the ECU under the right side of the trunk.

4. Anyone with a reasonable set of tools, an incredibly supportive group like Ferrarichat, and a little patience can do the job.

Hats off to all that helped!

Best,
dce