[V8] Sleuthing my alternator / battery problem

[Steve Kramer]

Fellow v8ers,

When I lasted posted - not more than 3 minutes ago.  My car was driving 
great with the new wires  but soon things worsened.

After getting my car on Friday - I was driving it for about an hour and I 
started getting the low battery warning.  But not as before - the battery/ 
cat and brake lights did not come on.

I turned around and started home in the twighlight turning off the lights / 
heater - doing the Apollo 13 thing.  Managed to drive the car to a weigh 
station but by the time I got there the car had switrched into limp mode. 
( my thought is that maybe when in low electrical situation the car goes 
into the limp mode because of lack of power to the tcu)  Now I'm looking for 
answers.  Most likely it's the alternator but I also question the battery 
and something else I discovered.

1.  Replaced the trunk lid switch
2.  Replaced the ignition wires, caps and rotors
3.  The force of the collision moved my radio amplifier in the trunk area 
where the power wires were touching together - thus causing a draw.
4.  Battery was not fully charged - had my  defroster on - could the load on 
the electrical system suck more power out of the battery than what the 
alternator was able to produce.
5.  My voltage on channel 11 was reading 12.0 not 14.1 or 13.8 as it had. 
This has been like this since the summer.  In the summer I checked the 
volts coming of the positive lug at the front of the car and they were 
reading 14 volts.
6.  Had some strange things happen on the instrument cluster.   My neutral 
signifier invertered for a while and then returned to being lit. Could the 
cluster have something to do with the cluster.

Thans for your assistance.

Steve Kramer
1990 v8