Brother Al

Electrical Gremlins Part II.
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On Thanksgiving Day, I went out to my 'Bird to add some antifreeze. The temps were gonna fall into the 20's that night. After draining some weak mix outta the rad. and adding more antifreeze, I went to fire her up and move the stuff through the engine. She's been parked for about a month and the battery was completely dead. I had a wave of SOB's emminate from my mouth 'cuz there shoulda been some juice and I did fix the short circuit... I jumped the battery and she fired up on the first try. As the choke warmed up she began to stumble a bit so I rev'd the engine a bit to clear the cobwebs. As I did so, the guages lit up a little brighter than normal, in sync with the revs and I heard a faint squeeling sound...didn't sound like a belt, but it could've been. I let her warm up a bit and then attempted to take her for a spin. I turned on the headlights, put her in gear, and gave her a little gas. I heard a whining electrical feedback noise through the speakers, the headlights got wicked bright, the guages did too w/ the check engine light flickering on and off, then POW! I saw what looked like a lightning flash, but it was both of my headlights blowing simutaneously, and then the whole car went dead, except for the engine. I shut her off immediately & whiffed a burning electrical smell for just an instant. I then turned the ignition to "On" and was greeted with nothing at all, no "ding ding ding", no domelight, no radio, nada.

My only conclusion is that my alternator's bearing failed(squeeling) & somehow caused the electrical surge through the system as the RPM's increased, (as the Alt. spun faster). I havn't had time to trouble shoot this, too busy. I have a bad feeling that I probably fried the CCC's ECM and Prom, the alt, the headlights, the battery, maybe a fusable link or two and some fuses.
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Does anyone know of a similar situation or had this happen? It's not a "Rush" on this, I've got all winter. I'd like to know how likely it is that my ECM and Prom are wasted. Where else, besides the obvious, should I check for damage to my electrical system.
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rv34

Your voltage regulator may have went in the alt.

Toehead

+1.

It may have also blown the fusable links due to the voltage surge.

Weird, the dead battery should have absorbed a large part of the shock.