hey guys. i never get a chance to post much always busy but ive been on this site for a while hoping to get more involved on topics bu anyways.

my name is dan own a 1991 camaro convertible RS with the 305.

i bought a battery in the middle of december of 08 because my volts guage was super low. i knew the alternator was going cause it was whining like a baby. the car hasnt been started since january unfortunutly. i installed a new alternator last thursday and the volts on the guage stay around 10-11. i had it running for about 35 min yesterday and the volts went to about 12 but when i went back to look the fans kicked on and all the sudden the volts dropped to about 5-6. i tested the battery it says 11 volts and 85% charged. any ideas what the problem is. and ive had to jump start it yesterday but battery had juice in it. maybe a faulty alternator. dead cells in the battery.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks dan

 

I would recommend you charge your battery fully. Should test 12 volts and should be at or above the cranking amps listed on the battery. I see this alot at work, I sell parts for a living at Napa If the battery is not fully charged its gonna blow the diodes in your alternator because its trying to over compensate for the low battery. After your battery is charged put a load tester on it with the car running, to test the alternator, should be running 14 volts. If its not try a new battery. If that doesn't help then you either blew the alternator or you have bad one out of the box, which happens sometimes. Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

Also double check to make sure that all your connections and grounds are clean and tight.

 

thanks for the tips guys. everything is rounde and tight. i Charged up the battery t 100%. car started right up sounded great. after bout 20 min of running in the driveway nd the fans came on the guage started going down and stopped around 9-10 volts. i hooked up my battery chager to it and it was readingthe battery at 14.1 and alternator at 92-100 percent so i cant think of anything besides the either the guage isnt picking up the right currentor maybe theres something else??

 

Use a DMM/voltmeter to check both the battery and alternator connections. It sounds like you have a bad cable or wire.