Greetings all,

Son and wife were driving our "new" 91 this PM and developed a electrical "problem." First symptom was slight "burning" smell, followed by SRS light "on" (engine still running)--they said they saw no other warning lights. Thinking the smell was from a truck ahead of them, they attempted to raise the windows (electric), but were unable. When the smell got worse, they pulled over and stopped. While they couldn't see anything wrong, they were unable to restart (engine would not turn over). By the time I got there, smell was pretty much gone, and battery had recovered enough to get the windows up, but not enough to turn it over (although solenoid will "click"). Ended the evening by pushing it into a 24-hour Exxon and locking it up.

Looks like I may have a full day ahead of me tomorrow, so I thought I'd turn to you folks for a sanity check on likely problems:
1) Battery failed while underway, forcing alternator to overheat . . . .
2) Alternator failed (reason unknown), car ran until battery died . . . .
3) Other? Could starter get stuck in the "on" position and overheat? (car is M-47 manual, so no park/neutral safety switch) What about the ignition switch itself?

Any ideas on what other parts got "smoke checked"?

FWIW, a couple of weeks ago I went through all of the wiring from the alternator to below the timing belt and they all were sound--looked like PO had recently had new harness installed . . . .

Thanks in advance for your time and insight!

Steve Anderson