New battery installed and car ran fine. However, two weeks later, the car experienced electrical related problems: lights dimming, radio dimming, and the car hesitating considerably. I don't remember the charging light illuminating. I replaced the alternator with a rebuilt. I jumped started the car and it ran for about 5 minutes. It then started to have the same symptoms and then stalled. I jump started it again and then smoke started emmanating from the area of the alternator. Upon examimng the alternator, I could see a bubbling liquid within the stator. Some other things observed included the indicator light for my transmission was on the D4 position although the transmission was in Park.
Is it possible that the rebuilt alternator was bad? Could a severely discharged battery (assuming the first alternator was not charging and the car was running only on the battery) load down the rebuilt alternator to smoke it? Are there other things I should/could check before I go out an buy a fresh battery and another rebuilt alternator? In other words, are there other component failures that could cause the condition I experienced? I have already done some of the checks listed in the Haynes manual. Also, is it possible to get a schematic of the alternator. Specifically, I am trying to determine for the four pin connector to the alternator, which wire delivers voltage to and which one delivers voltage from the alternator.

 

Battery cable corrosion.You can do an ohm test from the battery to the fuse box,starter and ground(now the big cable from the alt runs to the fuse box do an ohm test on it to).You should not see more than 1 ohm threw the cables.Sounds like a bad alternator, personally i have had no luck with re built alternators for napa and checker.

Is the d4 light flashing now that would indicate a dtc(diagnostic trouble code) in the tcm(transmission control module).If you don't know how do read a dtc do a search its all over this site(you know the 2 pin blue connector pass. side jump it and count the blinks).

I will try and find the diagram for you.(a quick test for the alt. is you should see about 13-14 volts coming out of the alternator cable if so you alternator is charging).But smoke is a good sign of failure.