frayed alternator wire???

[oldyak]

my battery light came on yesterday and after checking under hood found a wire from the alt..9:00 position was frayed and arching.
Can I just repair this or is it a sign of a defective alt.?
Thanks
oldyak

 

[anmetcalf]

If it is truely frayed, and not melted, you can fix it.

 

[hawkeye18]

It's a sign that the wiring is old and crumbling.

Both of those wires go directly to the battery positive terminal. If worse comes to worse, route new wires from that plug to the battery terminal.

 

[Storm-Chaser]

It's always best to include the wire-color (in addition to year/trans) when asking questions involving any wiring or wire-harness questions.

If the wiring is frayed and arching, it needs to be either trimmed-back or replaced.

By "trimmed-back", I mean you gradually strip-back the wire until you get to what looks like good wire, then either crimp-on a new terminal end, or splice-in a new length of wire to replace the damaged section that's been removed. I would also check that wire for resistance, as resistance is a good indicator of how "good" or "bad" the wire/circuit is.

 

[oldyak]

just a loose wire!
Got lucky this time...
thanks to all!