Driving my car for about an hour is fine but after that the volts start dropping slowly. They reach 13 and hover around there until the car is shut off. If I leave the car for 15-20mins its hard to start but if left for over an hour it starts and the volts have gone up a bit. I haven't checked my battery after I've ran the car to check the volts at the battery but I've been through 3 in a year so it's not that. Alternator? What about the single wire that goes from the alt to the battery, my stock one broke that has a resistor in it and I just used a normal wire to fix the link, could that be it?

 

Possibly alt. problem,what exactly do you mean by regular wire to fix the batt. to alt. lead? Did you use a section of speaker wire or what?
If you used same gauge wiring I would have the alt. tested and if all checks out good there,do some inspecting of all the connections that go to batt. directly. Like the relays,and the distribution block next to the radiator.

 

are you sure that your not talking about the fusible link from the battery to the alternator, if i were you i would start the car and let it run use a voltmeter and test the voltage on the power wire of the alternator to a ground and see if the voltage is 13.8-14.4 that means the alternator is putting out, if you havent already i would make advance auto or autozone test the battery just to be safe but it sounds like your alternator may be getting hot and not putting out enough amperage. when heat goes up so does resistance in the alternator therfore the lever effect on the amperage and voltage, it may end up eventually killing the battery if its not addressed soon.

plus on the single wire from the battery to the alternator it should be cool if you used the same gauge wire and got a tight connection terminal on it.

 

The terminal at the alt from the battery is nice and tight except where the fusible link corroded away. I spliced in a wire I had laying around to get me home and haven't really looked at it for awhile but seeing in how I've been driving it recently and noticed the problem was still there. I'll try switching the wire to a better size/gauge and see if that helps. Battery is new.

 

also think about this. i had some steering column problems and had to swap columns, the only one i could get was from an older 3rd gen, not a 90-92 style like mine. one of the plugs was different and wouldnt plug in. this plug controlled, among other things, the regulator. the car would not put out over 11.5 volts. so check the 2 big connections on the base of your column and check the regulator (although i do not know how to do this, or even where it is).

hope this helps