Dead car, but not dead battery???

This happened to my Buick. Turns out it was/is the neutral safety switch. On my column shift I have to put it halfway between park and reverse and it will start when I turn the key.

 

Alright, installed a new Alt. started right up...no prob however..now the car won't shut off!!! I have no idea whats going on.. I started the car w/o the ALT. hooked up, it started right up and it also turned off when I turned off the key. So then I reversed the + and - battery cables and started it. It started but then it smoked so I unhooked the cables immediately. Now I'm back to NEGATIVE GROUND and everything is cool, except the ALT..It will not shut off when its hooked up. JohnEvans said most all ALT's are negative ground, I have it hooked up positive. Maybe thats the problem? who knows.. I'm stumped..

 

Get a diagram and start over. Read and plan. Understand how your components achieve ground, and what a diode does. Haphazardly swapping polarity of chassis ground "just to see if the smoke will come out" is the last thing you should be doing. I had a much more poigniant post, but deleted it as not to come off like an a-hole know it all.

 

Here's whats weird. I've been driving it over a year with a POSITIVE GROUND with an alternator. Its been just fine until the other day when it was dead..The battery never lost power, and the ALT never smoked. How did that WORK???
All I did was replace the battery wires and thats when this problem came up. (The meter would go all the way to "D" when I'd turn on lights and heater) That when the whole Alt. came up so I put in a new one, then now it starts up runs great but when you turn on lights and what not it goes all the way to "D" and then it won't shut off...

 

For some reason I doubt all of that occured just from R&R of battery cables.

 

The 'other day' was April Fool's. Did you have a homeboy over that messed with your car?

 

Nope no one has touched it...

 

Ok so you are saying that instead of just pulling the battery cable and then asking how to make things work you went back and reversed the cables and fried another alternator?

GM cars with alternators have a NEGATIIVE ground system period.

The car won't shut off because electricity is feeding back to the ignition switch from the alternator through the exciter wire. You can get a diode to put the line that will only allow juice to flow from the switch to the alternator but not back.

The alternator feeding back to the switch and not letting the engine shut off is pretty common with alternator swaps and almost every one of us who has swapped an alternator in in place of a generator has had that happen at one time and the ones who say they didn't are probably telling a fib.

There are some pretty decent books on automotive electricity and it might not be a bad idea for you to get one and study it a bit.
You can get this one through Amazon for under 10 bucks and it would be money well spent. http://www.amazon.com/Automotive-El...2387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1238738856&sr=1-1

 

NO NO didn't fry the alternator. I had it unhooked when we reversed the wires. The new ALT is just fine. I'm not an electrical guy at all. Just looking at a book isn't good enough for me. I'll have a buddy come over thats an electrician. So you think putting a diode in would fix everything? Why would it be going all the way to DISCHARGE when I turn on accessories?

 

Well its an AUTOLITE - Pro-Tech model #A7127M
I looked it up online didn't see anything for it. Its identical to my old one so it should be fine..

 

OK, found it...
http://shop.oreillyauto.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=ATR&MfrPartNumber=A7127M&PartType=11&PTSet=A

 

maybe the neutral safety switch.....not sure if your car is updated with newer steering column?