Hey guys....I noticed when I am sitting at idle at a light, my volts go from about 13 to red lining at about 8. This is occuring with the radio, fan, lights, and fogs on, so I expect a little drop off in volts, but not this much. I have a brand new alternator, and my ignition switch is new, I can't think why this is happening. I brought it into my cousin's shop, and he hooked up at voltometer to the battery to make sure my gage was correct, which it was. He said his car does the same thing cause he has ubderdrive pulleys. The guy before me did some stuff to the car, but I'm not sure about the pulleys. Any ideas about this?

 

If you have stock pulleys, your voltage should not go that low. Guess you need to see if you have any aftermarket pulleys.

 

Alright, thanks, Shoebox. What is the best way to tell if I have aftermarket pulleys, I mean, what do I look for?

 

Look on the crank hub...if there are two pullies on the crank hub (probably a fancy pulley and the factory harmonic balancer) then you have the underdrive pulleys. If there is one, you do not have the underdrive pulleys.

Also, be aware that a lot of the alternators that are installed are rebuilt ones and sometimes do not function like a brand new ones. You might have just got a muffed up alternator.

Just my .02

 

If its not the pulleys, how old is your battery...It could be a bad cell... Your reading should be close 14.2 volts with the engine running....