Brief Description: Discovered fatigued alternator lead and replaced
At 2nd condtion inspection I discovered that the B lead on my accessory pad mounted SD20 Alternator had fatigued at the terminal bolt. It was still conducting but there were signs of shrink tube melting due to possible heat from resistance.
For the previous 5 months I had been experiencing a variety electrical problems which I attributed to load balancing and possibly a weakening battery. I believe this was the root cause.
Two flights made after fixing lead and swapping battery on bus 2 suggest all problems fixed.
I was a bit thick headed here. Bob Nuckolls opined that it was probably an alternator problem. I confirmed that the alternator was working (it charged my battery when isolated on bus) but I then circumvented problems by 1) running with 2 buses interconnected and 2) adding a power stabilizer to bus2 to enable startup without (3) EFIS reboot. Finally the battery lost a batter cell due to poor charging and my circumvention was beginning to be ineffective.
I should have traced circut from alternator to the bus, fuse panel, etc. Instead I found it during the physical exam of FWF compartment.
The good news is that the very robust Nickolls Z-14 electrical design just kept on running at 100% effectiveness while giving me indications that something was going wrong and giving me multiple means to bypass the emerging problems.
New lead with relief loop added
New lead again - old lead failed at alternator terminal
