1998 MalibuV6 Hey guys, new to the site but not new to forums. I have alot of useful information for everyone about cars, escpecially saturns... I am your man to go to with those. Anywho... here is the story;

Thursday of last week - car got a new battery.
Sunday - The car decided it wanted to lose a starter.
Monday - put a starter on, and as soon as it cranked over the battery light came on 5 seconds later. Alternator failed.
Got another alternator from pepboys... failed same way.
Got another from advanced.... failed the same.

Update Got another alternator but have not put it in. I am worried that my friend wired the starter up wrong. He put it up the first time while I was doing something. Then I retightened and checked the wires but I am not sure how they go since he took it down. Right now it is setup

Ignition wire on ignition post (hard to screw that up on these cars)
Red wire on the front post towards the manifold and then the black wire (or so it looks... I am a big build guy its hard for me to get my arm around in there) to the post with the weave wire on it that goes from the startermotor to solenoid.

Is this correct? I have another alternator ready to be installed, I just want to make sure of wiring...

Thanks guys. I am sure I will be able to provide help in return. Oh and side note... the friend knows nothing of cars... I know I know. I thought I have taught him well of putting things back the way they came off. But I guess not.

 

The starter should only have 2 connections to it. Although there may be 3 spots for connections, there should only be 2 places where the wires go. 1 is a little stud for the wire that provides 12V during crank. This wire is usually purple but not always. 2nd is the big battery stud at the top of the solenoid. any left over wires should go here. If you see any wires with what looks like heat shrink tubing on it, give it a bit of a tug before you install it. If it feels loose or spongy, cut out the shrink tubin part and replace it with a piece of wire. It is a fuseable link that may have blown when doing the alternator