Okay, so my volt gauge is reading irregularly lately. I replace the alternation and that fixed it for one start. Then it started doing it again. The gauge sits around 13 volts. If I give it gas, it drops to about 12. Any clues? I'm thinking that there is some sort of draw somewhere, but I'm looking for any other ideas. That seems like to a lot of juice to be going bye-bye from some sort of draw. Oh, and my speedo needle bounces when I hit the brakes.

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'96 Bonneville SLE "Twilight" ( sold :( )
'72 Mustang Hardtop
'01 Grand Prix SE
'06 MINI Cooper S
'88 Ford Mustang Convertible (roller/for sale)

I had a similar problem with the volt gauge going backwards when I would rev(stab) it in park. If I stabbed it repeatedly, I could actually "walk" it down 3 or 4 volts. I did 2 things that effected and fixed it.
1. First, by chance, I had to replace the battery because of stripping out the negative post. The new one reduced the drop by 50%.
2. Second, I believed that the voltage regulator was goofed up in the alternator. It was 7 years old, with a lifetime guarantee. But it still passed the Autozone test. The guy didn't know it was theirs and said he thought it had a bad front bearing, so I dropped it on them for a free replacement. Long story short, the new alternator fixed the rest the voltage drops (2 volts) with increased RPMs.

So, you might first ensure you have good cable connections with no corrosion inside the wire. If that is okay, I would be looking at the alternator.

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1993 Red SSE - Bone-Stock except for High Perf. (LOL) Power Antenna-Original Owner. Pushing 140K - It's the love of my wife.
'05 Magnum Hemi R/T "Great White" - Classic VW Beetles

I still kinda think it's the alternator. This is exactly what the old one was doing. I took it out and they bench tested it. Bad voltage regulator. This one I just had them test it on the car. I should have known better. We did battery testing at wal-mart and the hand-held units were notoriously unreliable. Maybe I'll take it out again this week and have them bench test it again.

EDIT: btw, the new one is only a day old!

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'96 Bonneville SLE "Twilight" ( sold :( )
'72 Mustang Hardtop
'01 Grand Prix SE
'06 MINI Cooper S
'88 Ford Mustang Convertible (roller/for sale)

Beware that if they only test it at that one, idle-like speed, that it really doesn't test the regulator out to expose this problem. Something else; You may have seen some other posts here regarding the insides of the battery cables corroding. You should look at that too, esp. near the positive post. You have to slit the insulation and peel back; then tape it back up if okay.

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1993 Red SSE - Bone-Stock except for High Perf. (LOL) Power Antenna-Original Owner. Pushing 140K - It's the love of my wife.
'05 Magnum Hemi R/T "Great White" - Classic VW Beetles

Assuming you didn't get a bum alternator I suspect the battery too.

and as mentioned check those cables for any corrosion.

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Bone Evil

Mods: Tog Headers, cat delete, Al 104's gapped .050, 1.9 rockers, 105 springs,
Intense FWI, DHP Power Programmer PCM, Intense tranny with gen2 lsd,
Aeroforce scan gauge, Clear front and back, N* TB & LQ4 Maf,
Hoosier slicks, ZillaMotorsports P/P GenV & LIM

Pisco_Paul wrote:

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