2013 Hyundai Accent 1.6 GLS. I shorted the battery by accident and it fried the 125A multifuse. Replaced the fuse and still had the battery light on and 11.7v at the battery. Replaced the alternator but was still getting 11.7v. The charging system (battery) light went away. Took it for a quick 3-mile drive and it's at 11.4V now. The battery is less than a year old.

I read in another forum that it could be a short to ground. I'm not electrically-inclined, so not quite sure what I'm looking for or how to test for that. There is a brown ground wire I connected back below the alternator. I also am not certain how I would test the output of the alternator. The mulitmeter's red to the alternator and black to the chassis? Could use some guidance.

 

Not know exactly what you did ....
The 125 amp fuse is the main fuse
There may be another fuse that is blown
Or even a fusible link
Your alternator is not charging the battery.
Readings from the alternator should be able to be read from the battery posts while engine is running

If you want to read directly from alternator
Then use battery terminal on alternator and chassis ground (alternator ground/body)

 

The original problem occurred when my wrench made contact between the battery's neg terminal and the positive terminal on the fuse box (the lid was off.) Pop! The 125A multi fuse was clearly blown and very easy to replace.
I replaced the new alternator with a different new one but unfortunately this did not resolve the problem. Still only getting ~11.4V across the battery terminals, and the same when I go from the alternator's B+ to the battery's pos terminal. I suppose there's another fuse that got blown but Lord knows where to start searching. The battery does not drain overnight.
Not sure how far I could get driving it to the dealer, which would take 20-25 minutes.

 

Have you had the problem corrected yet , if so what was it?
If not ,maybe we can offer some addl checks to do. Did you check all the other fuses ? Sometimes they will have a separate fuse for the charging system.

 

Not yet.
I took the car for a short drive and within 8 minutes warning lights started coming on, and by the time I was approaching the house I had lost power steering and got additional warning lights. The battery had dropped to about 10.8V.
I inspected every fuse visible in the box and they all checked out.
Figuring it could be the battery, I took my year-old battery back to Interstate. It tested fine but the guy gave me a replacement, anyhow. He didn't have. One guy there suggested taking the multimeter and put the positive on B+ and the negative on the alternator housing. He said it should read ~14V. It read 0.
I took the first new alternator to AutoZone to have it tested since it was off the car and not on its way back to Amazon yet. It failed, which I'm actually kind of relieved about. Tomorrow I will take the second new alternator and the car's original alternator there to have them tested, as well. (The manager at our AZ is a great guy.)
The mystery--and saga--continues.

 

Some fusible links are actually wires. They will open when too much current flows.
Also possible one of the larger fuses could be blown
So with battery cables off the battery, would check to see if wires are good
Battery to alternator charging cable, Alternator to battery sensing wire, Alternator to fault light

 

That is why we purchase parts locally because of the problems when an online purchase is defective the hassle now is not worth the cheaper price.

 

Curiously, when the guy at Auto Zone was ready to test the alternator today he noticed it (the tester) showed it would put out 70A, so he didn't run the test. The alternator is rated to 90A, so he wouldn't run the test. I don't know enough the configuration of their testers to say whether 70A would've been fine. I left no better than I arrived. Guess I'll have to traipse over to Advance Auto Parts and try again, although I found the test results included in the box of the latest alternator.
As for testing the wires, to a pro I would imagine testing wires is a less-than-choice task. For me, it sounds like a recipe for an afternoon of pure frustration. I mean, finding the starting point of wires connecting the the alternator is the easy part. Locating the other end is quite a different thing. Replacing a bad wiring harness probably even a greater bundle of joy to experience. I can't even locate a wiring diagram.

 

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but you can look at something a dozen times and miss the most obvious of issues. Thankfully, having a friend who is an auto mechanic as second set of eyes helps you see what is clearly before you.
In this case, I simply didn't connect the positive terminal back to the fuse panel like I thought I had. We discovered the issue when tracing the wire back from the B+ terminal on the alternator. There it was, setting between the battery and the fuse panel. Connected that, measured the voltage and there you have it: +14.x volts.
I learned you can't count on AutoZone or Discount Auto Parts to have reliable alternator testing equipment. Both showed failed alternators--both new alternators, one I returned, the other (less expensive one) is in the car.

It all started when my wrench made contact between the fuse panel and the battery (red line) while I was trying to remove the bolt holding the fuse panel to the body of the car (yellow arrow.) It ended when I reconnected the positive terminal (purple box.)

I'll take the embarrassment over the prospect of having to replace a $2300-plus-labor wiring harness.

 

Don't feel badly about this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,because it can and does happen to a lot people that even are supposed to know what they are doing.
Glad you got it straightened out, thanks for the update.

A little side note, a lot of discount stores get their rebuilds from sometimes questionable rebuilders.

I will say one thing , we don't usually have this type problem when we purchase a rebuilt from a dealership. They cannot afford comebacks.