Purchased a 1985 Sea Ray with a 230 mercruiser. Hooked up the batteries red to the hot, black to the ground and the heavy orange wire going to the alternator got hot and started sparking and melted the black electrical tape on the harness. Upon inspecting futher, found that the wire was split and grounding out on a bracket. I repaired the wire and put it back together and tried it again and it is still getting hot and smoking. My brother in law wonders if I damaged the alternator and would that have caused it to do that? Any suggestions on whats causing this and what to do?
