Subaru Liberty blows fusible link. I'm stumped.

[wotnot]

Just be aware, if it was *my* car, I'd put everything back together sans the alternator, put a current clamp on the battery lead and hook it up....hoping everything is ok, and pretty sure if it's not ok a fuse will pop and point me in the right direction. I don't say this to -you-, because a car battery is a big nasty, and one has to be careful (you see the current reading rising quickly you unhook battery plenty fast =) Like I say, fuses are cheap, protect the wiring loom, and if it blows a fuse again, whatever's dead is well dead, and there'll be no saving it =) I wouldn't treat a customer's car like that -- I have the gear required to be able to go gently gently at it, but like VroomVroom says, at a minimum it's nice to have a resistive load like a bulb between the battery and everything else...ie; I've no idea if insulation on main power feed wires has rubbed through and found chassis - one can't be too careful.

If getting the warranty back is no big bother, I'd do it....I'd even try it on to get them to cover the cost of the fusible link. Years beforehand, that fusible link used to be a piece of wire between the alternator output line & the battery, and was always rated at the max current the alternator was designed to deliver ...just like your FL link, it's rated the same as your alternator. I think largely, manufacturers moved away from that notion, because ppl didn't want to pay that much money for "a little piece of wire with terminals on the end", and it was far too easy for ppl to bypass with thick gauge copper wire, and because I've seen it more than once, I know...wire from alternator to battery gets red hot, insulation melts off...hope it doesn't catch fuel and burn off...pray it's not near/under any fuel components...ugly. In your case, the total of blown fuses (in amps) does not exceed the holding current of FL, and seeing as everything fed from unswitched B+ MB-10 is fused...what else could've drawn 80amps or more?... =)

You raised a question in my mind when you mentioned the 'battery not charging/alt warning light' coming on. I had no warning from my dash, and I do keep an eye on it when I'm driving.

Ummm..you indicate the system has been subject to a (up to) 30VAC ripple current (no doubt due to blow diodes in rectifier plate)...the charge indicator lamp has a diode connected across it (not sure, but going by the drawing this might be on the cluster PCB) ; it's likely blown, and thus lost the ability to indicate low state of charge -- it likely still illuminates momentarily during bulb check after key on.

System cannot generate MIL for alternator failure - it's unmonitored in your model (I believe the 3pin units enable this feature) ; likewise 11.7volts is probably not considered a critically low voltage (and would only generate to dimmest of glows from the charge indicator lamp)