Quote Originally Posted by jba3 View Post
I replaced the alternator about a year ago, before the wedding. It died, and was covered under warranty. I replaced it again in early January and finally turned the car on a couple weeks ago. Since it sat for about 5 months, the battery was dead. I jump started it - which was NOT fun - since the other spyder is on jack stands in the garage next to it and I had to daisy-chain jumper cables from outside. I invested in a plug-in jumper/charger box after that.

I went to start it and move it outside so I could clean the garage and set up a table to start organizing a few things, but it was completely dead. So I jump started it again, and it dies as soon as I unhook the jumper cables. I pulled the driver's wheel to check the belt and tension, since I finished the alternator somewhere around 2am and wasn't overly coherent, thinking I didn't tension the belt, and it was wet. I haven't had a chance to look into it further yet.

I also forgot I never fixed the parking brake after the wedding morning fiasco. I put the brake down, and the light stayed on. So I've got to check on that too. I was a bit overzealous in posting this thread, I think.
To start off with, :facepalm:

The fluid was brake fluid. I started installing SpeedBleeders while I had the wheel off for the alternator and forgot about it until I saw the box on the passenger seat last night. So I sprayed it and wiped it down. Just need to bleed the brakes (OEM bleeders still in) and it should be good to go.

The alternator, belt, and tension were fine. So why was the car dying when I unhooked the jumper pack?

Sigh.

I still had my battery disconnect switch "off". The jumper pack clamps are too small to fit over the terminals, so I had it clamped at the car" side of the cable. So the car was running off the jumper box that was plugged in. Once I tightened the disconnect switch and jump-started it, it fired it up, and it idles fine with the jumper disconnected. I haven't moved it yet, since I need to bleed the brakes, but another 2am install caught up with me and left it's mark!

While I was out there I reinstalled the stock shift boot and stock ebrake boot. I may take the turbo timer out while I'm fixing the ebrake/sensor. I'm going to put the stock wheels on since I'll have to take them off to bleed the brakes, so the car won't come with the DR31s, it'll come with the stock wheels - but I'm going to reduce the price of course.

In an odd related note, I was looking through pics of when I bought the other spyder, and it came with the same 5 spoke chromies. Any spyder gurus know if the 95 spyders came with 17" chrome 5 spokes instead of the 18" chrome 6 spokes the VR4 coupes?