wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 21:22:04 -0500, Bill Putney > wrote:
>
> ||
> ||Except, after I had learned my lesson years earlier on aftermarket
> ||manuals, a few months after I bought my daughter a used car, the very
> ||first opportunity that came up for diagnosis and repair of an electrical
> ||problem, in a weak moment, I went down the street and sprung for a whole
> ||$13 for a Haynes manual. Due to a visibly hidden fuse that was not
> ||shown in the "TYPICAL" schematics of the Haynes, I ended up replacing a
> ||perfectly good factory alternator when all that was wrong was that the
> ||in-line fuse that the manual did not show had mechanically fractured.
>
> With all due respect, that's just not good basic diagnostics. Every parts store
> worth giving your business to has an alternator tester...

see below

> ...A quick check would have
> told you the problem was elsewhere. That's not excusing the omission, but there
> is some shared responsibility here...

see below

> ...Haynes is advertised as a "Tuneup and repair *guide*".

My primary bone of contention is that "typical" schematics are used. I
make the analogy to using a map that shows hiways between New York and
Philadelphia to drive from Denver to LA. To sell someone such a map for
that purpose is fraudulent. There's no such thing as a schematic to be
used as a "guide". It either represents the circuits of interest and is
a useful troubleshooting too, or it is as worthless as that map. If
it's only a guide, then leave the schematics out, because putting them
in at all implies something that isn't delivered.

They do not pretend
> to be a substitute for the FSM, but for the money they are a good alternative,
> and the only company currently providing one. And yes, some Haynes books are
> better than others.
> Texas Parts Guy

You are correct about having it tested - in the attempt to keep my posts
short (which is a problem for me anyway), I just failed to mention that
- the fact is that I took it to two stores, and the standard adapters
they had with their alterantor test setups would not adapt to the
particular alternator (for the record it was on a '96 Mercury Mystique -
for some reason, the connectors are not typical of other Ford
alternators). The one store was honest about it - did their best to use
alligator clips to hook it up the best they knew how - they didn't seem
very confident in how to hook it up, and it failed the test - I took
that with a grain of salt. Went to a competitor who had the exact same
generic tester setup with the same standard adapters (that didn't fit
the alternator) - their guy faked it and simply told me it failed the
test. The problem turned out to be a mechanically fractured (not
thermally/electircally blown) MegaFuse™. An alternator is not going to
blow the same time a fuse happens to mechanically fracture.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')


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