Alternator Circuit Breaker Kicked Out

[buildit]

I put a resettable circuit breaker in my alternator circuit...I know that many of you have used mega fuses. I mounted it on the front of the pass. foot box.

It had been doing fine, but the other day when I got on it pretty good, I immediately noticed that my oil pressure was reading about 20% higher, my temp gauge did the the same, and I had no voltage showing. Got it home, reset the breaker, and all seemed fine.

What do you think kicked the breaker? I was thinking either the "voltage surge" from hammer down maybe tripped it, or do you think it could have been heat from the headers and was just coincidental to my "spirited driving"?

All ideas welcomed!

Thanks!

[CraigS]

My first thought is how does the rating of the breaker compare to the alternator max output? Up to it's max output, the alt will only put out whatever current is needed to keep up w/ the drain on the system. Did you happen to have a lot of accessories running at the same time? IE lights,radiator fan, etc. so that there was a good load on the alt?

[Pierre B]

I used a fusible link to address this issue. As I learned in the process, a fusible link is simply a length of wire that will self-destruct under excessive load. I installed spade connectors at both ends of the wire and simply inserted it into a fuse holder: voila. I have never needed to replace that link in 13,000+ miles of travel.

[buildit]

I'm going to have to check the ratings of the cb and the alt this weekend....I just can't remember!