Car roll starts, dies after 1-2 minutes. Brand new alternator.
 

Alright, let me tell the story: Was driving home from work about 3 months ago and the car lugged, dash lights went nuts, and a small bit of white-ish smoke came in through the air vents. I did a visual and nothing seemed wrong, but from that point on the e-brake and battery lights would turn on when the car would dip into low RPMs.

I took the car to Advanced Auto and they put a battery tester on it, told me the battery was fine and that the alternator was messed. I drove on it until this weekend when, on Friday, the alternator completely gave out and I limped the car to work on no working guages. I get the new alternator in and everything seems okay. It roll started just fine, no problems, I drove it for about 3-4 minutes and parked it, went to work. On the way to work everything in the car dimmed and the guages went dead. The clock was dimmed out, etc.

After work I had to roll start the car again, and after 1-2 minutes misfiring, lugging, and then it eventually just cut out. I rolled it to a nearby house and had it jumped. It took forever to get enough juice into the battery to even start the damn thing, then the same thing 1-2 minutes and it died. I ended up having to have my friend tow me home with his 96 jetta. low point in life for sure. http://www.hyundaiaftermarket.org/fo...fault/wink.gif

I'm taking the car battery into AutoZone to get it tested/replaced if necessary in the morning, but I have 2 questions.

This was my first alternator install, and when I was re-attaching the (I believe) ground terminal to the battery, the terminal on the replacement alt was different than stock, so the terminal is between two brass/gold-plated nuts, instead of all the way down on the terminal. is this a problem?

And secondly, the plug that attaches to the alternator have bare wires showing, and in an attempt to remove it and put electrical tape around them, it looks like a pulled/frayed one of them a little. I can't find this part online and have no idea what it's properly called. I am handy with electronics and wiring, and could easily recut, strip, crimp, and solder that connection again, but it seems like it's still connected-if it isn't would that be a cause for dead car despite the shiny new alternator?

Thanks for sitting through the whole post, and I appreciate any help you can give.

Sincerely,
B. from NC