mein_tag

I have my early N/A that i've been trying to figure out why the battery light keeps coming on. I just replaced the alternator with one from checkers, and just had my new battery checked out and it passed. the reman alternator passed before I took it home aswell.

The problem:
I start the car and measure the voltage at the battery and i'm getting 12.2 volts at idle. I can rev the car and the voltage doesn't change. I drive the car around alittle bit. "I go to sonic" when i try to start it, the starter is really slow. I drive back home, turn her off and try to restart and the starter doesn't even turn. So i have a feeling the car is just running off of the battery.

What do you guys think is wrong?

sillbeer

That is weird. I had a charging system problem on my early car as well. It wouldn't charge under 3K rpm unless you revved it to over 3K rpm, and then it was fine. Basically, the alternator wasn't self exciting. It turned out that the battery bulb has to be functional in order to complete the circuit. This doesnt seem to be the problem in your case, but If the alternator only puts out 12.2V at all times, it seems to be a problem with the alternator.