You do not have to take the alternator off to have Autozone test it. Drive the car there and they can test the battery and charging system with everything in the car. Be sure whoever does the outside testing knows how to interpret the results. A warning: the load the tester puts on the battery and charging system can kill a battery, if anything is marginal. By kill the battery, I mean it can drain it so bad it will have to be recharged before it will start the car. If that happens, it should probably be replaced anyway. If you need an alternator, Autozone will most likely have at least 2 options, maybe 3. Usually there is a rebuilt and a new unit available. Check Autozone's website. You can look up parts and prices.

 

I would take the alternator off. But thats just me. I mean its like 3 bolts and a nut, big woop. The test they perform in the store is much more accurate. It test the alternator completely without the chance of something else messing up the results. They mount it in a machine, hook the wires up to it, then spins it up to speed. The machine then tests it for volts and amps at different speeds (which test the regulator).

And for the person that says they have to drive the car there and thats why they can't take it off. Well, everyone else works on their car in the parking lot. You do what you gotta do...

Good Luck

 

That's for sure people work on their cars in the parking lot.

 

Flash!! my buddy reminded me that a bad belt tensioner will and very often does kill the alternator and this inturn kills the battery. Because of the jerking motion of the bearing going bad in the tensioner, this causes a strong jerking motion on the belt which jerks the alternator. The shop summizes that this jerking motion causes spikes being output from the alternator. He had spent many hours finding this problem on his own vehicle before finally replacing the belt, tensioner and alternator. My suggestion to you is replace the alternator, belt and the tensioner.

 

good point

That makes perfect sense. Belt Tensioners aren't that expensive and a great item to replace especially on higher mileage LT1s.

And it never hurts to replace a belt (except on the side of the highway, I guess )

 

That's exactly what I will do. Thanks alot. I will let you know what happens.