First off, please go easy with me; I am just a guitarist, not a mechanic. But I am not a virgin under the hood.

I have a 1999 Ram 1500 (any other info will need to be requested as I don't know what else you will need to know.) I just replaced the battery, and it was dead within a week. So I put it on a charger over night and replaced it this morning. When I got into the truck to start it, there was no door chime, no instrument lights, but the starter turned over when I turned the key. But the truck would not start. I thought that was strange. I was under the impression that if there was no electric to the cab, then the starter would not get any ether. Anyway, I don't know why, but I looked into the fuse box inside of the engine compartment, and noticed that the 140 amp fusible link for the alternator was blown. I disconnected the battery and replaced the fuse. As soon as I reconnected the battery, the link blew again. I heard the fuse blow.

I don’t want to try this again, at least until I know why it blew, or what I did wrong. Any help from ANYONE would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

 

Take the alternator off and bring it to a local auto parts store which
has an alternator tester. There's a good chance that it is shorted
inside.

Also, check the alternator wiring and the battery positive/negative
cables for corrosion and tightness.

 

Well, I can give ya some ideas as to what to look for. First off, keep the battery disconnected.

Also I have to ask, at any time, did you smell sulphur (rotten egg type smell) at any time? If so, this would normally indicate either one or more bad cells in the battery, OR, your voltage regualtor may have malfunctioned to the point where excessive voltage is in the system, although nothing has really failed yet.

If the rotten egg smell is present, don't do any testing where sparks could occur. For that smell to be present, battery acid has boiled, which expedites breakdown of the plates due to excessive heat. Just remove the battery if the smell is present...lol



The next thing I would do is unscrew the fusebox from wherever it mounts. My truck happens to be on the fender skirt right behind drivers side battery. The fuse box should have 2 large diameter wires. Probably a 6 or 4 gauge. One goes to the negative cable, one to the pos cable. After you get the fusebox undone, try to look on the underside of it. Mine was hard to flip with all the wires attached. Try to guestimate where and which wire(s) are for the fuse that keeps blowing. If there's a short under the fuse box, there HAS to be some damage. See if something something is shorting to ground. If it all looks good, I would suspect the alternator/regulator. I don't believe there's anything on the truck other than a direct short, OR a continuous increase in voltage that could blow a fuse that big.

When you start the truck, ever notice how everything "goes out" while you hold the key in the start position? That's an intentional disconnect to prevent "spiking". It gives the battery all available starting power power, which cause a voltage drop during cranking. If electrical appliances such as headlights, radios, etc are left on, damage could result from that low voltage.

Get the alt tested. Any autoparts store will do it for free.

Good luck.

 

Thanks you for your help. I will be back for more if this is not the answer, but I have a feeling that you guys know what you are talking about.

Thanks again,