The car hard starts occasionally..other times fires right up. The motor is always turning over the same, no sluggish starts, just takes time to fire up. The volt meter on the dash while idling says:

While driving it never gets 13 volts on the gauge.

At the battery while idling (a/c and radio on) the volt meter says:



At around 2500 RPMS it says:



and then..the kicker..with the car completely off the meter reads:


Any toughts..ground wire by coil seems fine. Alternator says delco remy on the back..could be OEM..but it would have 158K miles on it..lol..any help?

 

at a stop light the lights in the dash and the headlights do dim a bit....a friend thinks the hard start is probably a well worn original fuel pump. im still lost on the volt situation..im leaning towards a poor alternator (not dead). For all i know its putting out great voltage and 0 amps or something..

 

well i kinda think i just solved my own problem...off the back off the alternator its reading 12.0 volts...deff not enough.

 

Most auto parts stores will test the charging system for free. If your voltage is to low it will effect the power to the fuel pump.

 

UGHHHHHH...well put on a brand new alternator..hooked everything up and fired it up...upon initial start up it was perfect...13.80s at the battery and around 14.2 at the back of the alternator....let the car warm up while i cleaned up..went back out and its now 12.0 at the battery and around 12.30 or so at the alternator...im lost. any ideas?


on the gauge its sitting in the red at idle and barely creeps out of it while driving..regardless of RPM...what do i do? im so stuck. wires maybe?

 

well went out and checked it again...its now gradually going down from 12.40 at the battery to around 11.90 at the battery and alternator.

previous owner said it had an underdrive pulley on it...it doesnt look like one to me..could that be causing all these problems?