burning up alternators

[79 surfwagon]

I've smoked 3 alternators in 2 weeks. The odds of all three going bad are slim. Help me find what I've done wrong:

I did the serpentine swap with reverse flow waterpump. The alternator and serpentine setup came off of a 91 silverado 5.7L.

I have the hot lead (10 ga.) red wire on the back of the charging post running down to my starter solenoid. The batter hot cable is hooked to the same solenoid terminal. I have a plug on the side of the alternator with a 14 ga wire that is brown. I've hooked this brown wire up to an ignition source that is hot when the key is 'on'.

After about 40 miles the volt meter is at 8 volts, the battery is dead, and I'm limping home.

I've also added a mini-starter and electric fans with this swap. The fans are run off a relay that is only active when the key is on and grounded by a 170* temp switch. The starter is new, but heat soaks and won't start the car when hot.

Where would you guys look first ? I'm driving to work tomorrow, to test alternator #4, and i fully suspect it will be smoked by the time i get home.

HELP.

 

[79 surfwagon]

quick note: these alternators are 105 amp rebuilt units with part number 01-0401 from O-Reilly

 

[383S10]

Isnt there supposed to be a resistor to the brown wire......I only have the red wire going to the battery hot terminal and nothing to the starter from the alternator......just the battery to the starter running that same alternator on my serpentine conversion on my 400 sbc......right now I am at work but I can check to verify my hook up tomorrow.......in the mean time look at the pics in my old thread and see the wires from my alternator.....
http://maliburacing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=95774

and another good thread that helped me...........

http://maliburacing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=95449.........

good luck.......

 

[79 surfwagon]

I ran a 2ga ground directly from the alternator mount to the battery (-) terminal. I ran a 10ga wire from the back of the alternator to the battery (+) terminal. I added the 10ohm resistor to the ignition switch "on" wire. The idea behind these mods are to insure the alternator is grounded and sourcing directly to the battery vs. grounding through the engine block and power lead running through the starter solenoid.

The car is charging, but I'm not sure if it is going to burn up again or not.

I'm getting 225* readings with an infared thermometer. How hot should this alternator be getting? It's the 105 amp that comes on the common serpentine belt brackets. I put the same thermometer on my Dad's 85 pickup, but it was only 165*... granted that alternator is only 60 amp.

Can anyone get a temp reading on their serpentine alternator so I can get a ballpark on what the temp should be reading? I found the middle 'black ring' in the aluminum housing gets 225*, but the aluminum housing on the front and back of the ring only get to about 135*.

Someone post up a temp reading if possible. This is my 4th alternator in 2 weeks. Ugh.