Electrical Failure

[Xavier]

Before I begin diagnosing this problem I would like to get other peoples opinions, see how other people would go about it.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon which was only about 75 degrees, I went cuising in the Cobra. Suddenly the engine goes dead and I pull over to the side. At this time my fans are off, but when switched to on they both work (just wanted to see if it had current). I hit the hazard light button and nothing happens.

I get out of the car and immediately check the fuses, the following fuses are blown;

Main 50 amp
Gauges
Headlights

I replace the fuses, try to start the car. Nothing. This time nothing in the car will turn on - I have no electric any where. Thinking that what ever happened made my battery cut-off fail, I jumped the battery cut-off. Again, still no signs of electricity. I checked the fuses again - all fuses are good except the one for the gauges. It blows each time.

I noticed a couple other things as well (you always do when things don't work the way they should). The wire terminal going to the alternator from the main fuse look burnt, not bad, but definitely with a tad bit of black on the terminal to the main 50a fuse and to the alternator. Defnitely not what you would expect an 8 gauge wire to look like. The copper wire peaking out looks more like aluminum.

I finally had it towed home (2 miles) and begin to look at it again; all grounds are good, I checked all of them. Fuse for the gauges keeps blowing. Alternator is very hot, not boiling hot, but hot. I never touch it after running the engine so maybe this is typical? I noticed that the alternator was still very warm 4 hours after running the engine and running into this problem. I was surprised to see how warm it remained.

Tonight i start taking apart the dash and the steering column looking for a short somewhere. The gauge fuse seems to be a simple diagnostic of a loose or broken wire, but what has me more concerned is the alternator and the 50a fuse blowing.

Specs ar as follows;
Tuff Stuff Alternator 100amp
Painless Harness
Car has less than 4k miles on it
Ididit Steering column which has had had internal wire issues within it in the past (this is to no fault of the manufacturer). Major suspect...