So I start the car up today...the voltmeter reads like 9 volts. Shut it off, pop the hood, belt is fine, everything's connected, but then I notice the black/red wire running from the alternator to the positive battery cable had blown. Now, here's the question. This wire from the alternator goes into a little black cylinder thingie that I have no idea what it is. It's not a fuse. The wire goes into one end, and out the other end goes a wire to the + battery and another red wire that goes to a fusible link. At the other end of this fusible link there is no red wire...just an orange wire. The problem is, the short occured riiiiiight at end of the alternator wire - like 1/2" from this black cylinder thingamajig. What is this thing? is it just some sort of splice? Can I just resplice these three wires?

 

I have an 86 IROC and the wire from my alt. broke in that same spot. For mine we took off the old wire from the back of the alt and replaced it with a new one hooking it directly to the (+) Terminal of the Batt. Ive gotten New cables since then and still dont know what that damn cylinder thing is with all the wires coming out. The new cable dosnt have it and everything on my car even before the cable change was working fine.

 

what gauge wire did you use to go to the alternator? is 12 gauge big enough? also, there are a few other wires coming out of that cylinder thing. one goes to the fan...the other i dont know...and another goes to the (-) batt cable ????

 

I have 8 guage on mine, but if it were me I wouldn't go any smaller than 10.

 

I dont know what guage it is, but it looks really small. Its the stock one that came with the new cable. I plan on going with 10 guage or even as AaronIROCZ said 8 gauge. I guess GM didnt take into consideration all of the aftermarket mods we might put on our cars that would require thicker wire.