I have a 96 1500 5.9 and I just put my alternator back in after redoing my heads and I fired it up and only got 8V. So I didn't think anything of it until I was driving and my Volts started decreasing significantly. Next thing I noticed, my battery died. Thank god I made it home. But what could have caused this? I suck at electrical. Can it be that I possibly didn't ground it correctly? Regulator bad? Thanks.

 

I would say the ground is a good guess. The wiring would be first place to check.
JEFF

 

Well. When I opened that hood of the engine there was smoke coming from the alternator and something was burning. This leads me to believe that possibly the belt was too tight and destroyed the alternator ball bearing??

 

I'll bet you shorted your alternator out and fried it.

 

What part of the alternator do you think is fried?

 

Just remember in electronics once you let the smoke out, it wont work again.
That is one of the warning signs manufacturers have added to there products over the last 50 years......

Just joking with ya.....


Is there an alternator shop around.... most of those guys can fix it cheaper than buying a new one and will use better parts that the rebuilt junk at el'cheapo auto parts.

It could have taken out a variety of things, just depends if when it went did one part failure cause another... the domino effect

 

It's an auto-tensioner. I doubt the belt was too tight. I'd agree, I think you missed a wire somewhere and fried it. Toast is forever toast.