i pulled the alternator of my 86 mini and took it to the shop to get it tested. i was for sure that it was bad. so i fig. on spending $80+ for a new one. well the alt tested out good. so now i have to fig. out why my mini will not stay running when the gas is let up. i had to connect my elect. chock to the battery so that it would at least start and run to make it home. one guy told me about some kind of in-line fuse that looks like a wire but it not. some where by the battery. any help would be great as fare as quick checks and or ideas. i all ready checked the ground wires, that was the first thing i did.

no ideas at all, dang this is going to suck!!!!!!

That "inline fuse" is a fusable link that comes from your battery to the fuse box to supply power to everything. If it was burned it would look burned and crispy, plus, most likely nothing else on your truck would work either. What year is your truck? Carbed or injected?
Easy test for the alt. is to start it up, yank the positive cable from the battery. If it dies, the alt. is bad. If it keeps running, alt. is good.

It is a 86 and it is carbed. Yea, the alt. is good, I had it checked out at the shop.
I pulled the + side wire off the battery and it quit, yet the alt is good. ????????
yet it will run if i connect the ele. chock wire to the + on the battery. so i fig. it is just running from the battery power only. Very confuzzing to me.
i'm use to the ol' chevy trucks that only has 4 wire to make them work. lol

If the alternator is good, then when you yank the positive cable off of the battery the truck will still run off of the alternator. Another test is to put a meter on the battery while the truck is running. If the voltage steadily drops then it is running off of the battery. If it stays constant, then the alternator is charging properly.
The electric choke should have 12v when the ignition is on. Otherwise, it should not have anything to do with killing the engine. All it is is a heating coil that stays contracted until it is enegized, which heats it up and expands the coil, thus opening the choke plate as the engine runs.
I have had starters and alternators checked at shops and at the local parts stores. Not always reliable. My wife was out of town one time, broke down after going into McDonalds, right next door to Advance Autoparts. I told her to go over and have them try to help her out. They do, and then they sell her a $100 battery. She gets home, I check it out, and when I asked about the greasy hand prints on the engine fuse box, she says they "checked them". I look inside and there is a brand new fuse! The one that starts the car! Pretty good. They sell her a battery and slip in a one dollar fuse (which was the real problem).
My advise is if there is any doubt about your alt., go buy one. Keep it clean (wear gloves if neccesary), install it, try it out, and if your problem persist, take it back and get a refund. Otherwise, poke and prod for a week or so, until you realize that the alternator IS the problem.

Good idea. I'll have to do some good cleanup around the alt. area of the motor before hand.
Is there a ez way to check out the relay switchs just so can say that they are good?
i have all ready replaced all the old fuses. i'm fixen to replace the ground wire fom the bat. cuz it is getting weak at the connection anyways. i just have to do it in steps cuz of the rain here, and i have no shop or car port.

well i'm still having problems. when i start the truck it runs fine. it will run all day long if i let it.
BUT, if and when you give it gas it starts running like crap and the bat. and break light come on.
it's running like it has a miss or something. if you let the rpms get to low it will die. then when you restart the truck it runs fine. it's like a broken record most of the time. yeasterday i fig i would take a vid to show what was going on. well of courst it ran just fine didn't even start acting up at all. so i turned it off and when in side to tell the wife that it secemed to be running fine and i was going to take it for a spin. when out to start it up. then it started all over again. idleing fine but when i gave it gas it started missing and it died when i let up off the gas. WTF!!!!

crappy cell phone vid, but you get the idea, i hope
also i got a little peeved that the lights didn't come on. lol can you tell?

When i applied some gas the light came on then i kept givin it a little more, then i let up and it died.

have you done the tests like mentioned? this may sound crazy, but my truck did all this and it was the fuel filter was screwed. I know I mentioned this in another thread but you would be suprised at the crap a little 4 dollar part can cause. My oil light would come on, and it had plenty, my brake light flashed, some random shit would just happen and all it was was my gas tank was filled with rust and all from sitting so long that it bogged down constantly.

Well i just put a new ones 1 mo. ago. The main one by the tank and the 2nd one by the carb.
i'll check them out when i get home, but when i had a clogging filter the last time it didn't make the truck run like it was missing and the lights didn't come on either. so if it is the filter then why would it run great untill you give it a little gas and start acting up? this baffels me to no end.

O yea btw the alt. is good. when i start it up and let it idel i can take the bat. out and it will still stay running.

have you checked your dizzy under the cap for burn marks and build up and plugs to see if all of them are gettin fire? also check for vacumme leaks... does the 86 have o2 sensiors?... whens the last time you cleaned or rebuilt the carb? theres alot of things to check into that could be the cause....

My MR2 sat for a while and built up some water in the tank and it ran like that. Honestly I'm stumped. I guess it wouldn't hurt to get some fuel stabilizer or waterburn gas treatment to dump in the tank. I had to "drive it out" with my MR2. Sucked, but after about 25 miles, it cleared up. Bad news is when I hit an open straightaway, it started sputtering so I nailed it up 78mph and recieved a ticket from the highway patrol. He didn't believe the "water in the gas" excuse I gave him.

Have retested, & pulling the battery cable can damage the alternator. This comes from a shop that does nothing but alternator repair. The testing may not have been done correctly, & the test machine may not be good!

new webber carb, installed about 3 mo ago.
all plugs are getting fire, but i dont know how rich the fire is. it will arc about 1/2 from the rotor cap when i pull the wire. so i fig. thats good.

Drain and cleaned out the tank 4 weeks ago and flushed out the gas lines and put new filters all around.