New alternator, still not enough voltage

[Ferret]

Sounds heat related...did you check all of the other connections/wires back to the battery to include cleaning all of the grounding points?

I wonder if you have a rotten cable running along the floorboard from the engine to the battery that gets hot and resistive over time. I swear I've seen this kind of mess before and finally found it by flexing a positive cable and hearing the crunching noise from the corrosion under the insulation. To look at the wire, you wouldn't have suspected it was garbage but once I cut the insulation off of it, what a mess!

You can find the culprit, you just have to hang in there and be thorough in your search.

If you're checking your voltage while running through the OBC are you sure your fusibile link is in good shape?

Heat would cause this to go funny...

[bones]

electrical issues can be really frustrating,keep it simple,if the alternator put out 14.1 volts on the car initially and then degrades with a load i would suspect the battery .possibly a bad cell.the alternator is telling you that you have got enormous current draw going on.when you start turning on accessories does it affect idle speed?does the engine pull down slightly? this is also an indicator of current draw.swap the battery if there is no change,pull the headlight connectors and remove them from the circuit.still no change,pull the 80 amp fuseable link and test again,if there was no charging issues prior to the headlight task i would really check that area well.was it a simple plug and play swap or did you have to modify or repair the wiring? bones

[bones]

one last thing,a bad starter motor that is shorting internally would produce symptoms identical to what you have. bones

[Ferret]

The Conversation splits in this thread are hurting my head :s

Totally missed that you'd said it was fixxored because of the belt - the thread itself was hiding the responses.

[Tiger]

Damn! You definitely are! Geez! I am wondering if your old alternator is good too... Don't touch it!

[bsell]

Well after all this, it turns out i am a moron. The belt was on wrong, going over the idler pulley next to the alternator instead of under it. The belt was loose, but not squealing. It is also much easier to get the belt on this way If anyone has a random problem like this, make sure to check the belt routing, it is far too easy to overlook!

I figure this belt thing happened for a reason. You did find a buggered ground wire and a cruddy ground point so all that effort was not lost. I figure your alternator was working harder than it needed to overcome the resistance problems you fixed. So hopefully your new one will last on the cleaner electrical system you now have.

Brian