I had an electrical problem come on while driving around and fortunately made it home. I popped the hood and immediately noticed a loose power post on the fresh rebuilt alternator (from AutoZone!) and felt the wire to the alternator was hot. Like an idiot, instead of immediately disconnecting the battery, I played with the alternator post and saw white smoke coming from the fusible link area.
I immediately pulled the battery connection. The fusible link had melted a small amount of blue plastic at the connector, but I'm not sure if the link was destroyed. Does this pic of the fusible link look like the metal tab is fried? Did a bridge on the tab melt away? I'm just happy that my fresh restoration didn't go up in flames while I was driving!