Battery or Alternator?

[QWIKTURBO]

I'll try to keep this short. Last night coming home from work the car died. Acted like it was fighting itself and did not accelarate off a light worth a flip just befor it died. Then it wouldnt start on its own. It appears to be a dead battery. I jumped it..and it ran fine. I put a Voltmeter on it. With the car off...battery has around 12.6-12.7 volts. Running it has 13.3 volts at the battery. Lights on...everything...13.3 volts. Is that adequate for charging the battery witha full load of lights....radio...etc? I seem to remember over 14 volts was normal....am I wrong? Is the alternator crapping out or what? TIA guys(or girls)

 

[JoeNational]

Lil bit of old school!!!

what you should do is start the car than as the car is running take off the battery terminals and let the car run off the ALT if she dies than a new alt if it stays on and runs with no problems than batt.

 

[QWIKTURBO]

Geez....

You know....I used to know that kind of stuff before I got this car! I'll give that a shot...thanx for bringing back the Old Skool cure alls!

 

[QWIKTURBO]

Well well.....

I didnt do the Old Skool test...but since I have daylight now....I saw that the terminals were a little loose...and needed some cleaning. Not bad...but wouldnt hurt none.
After I game em a decent cleaning and tightened them up good...the 13.3 I had from last night is now 14.20 volts with lights off...and 13.95 with them on. Almost a whole 1 volt difference just from a qwik cleaning and scuffing. I'll see how she works tonight getting me home. Hopefully that fixed it. Thanx there JoeNational for the suggestion.

 

[JoeNational]

Ahh no problem for the old school trick lol glad she is working good again.