Ok, Sometimes while idleing, the volt meter on my '91 K1500 sways back and forth a little. When starting my truck, the volt meter drops to 10 or 11, and I am pretty sure it should be at about 14 while cranking. When my truck is running, the volt meter is at 14, when I thought it was supposed to be around 12. Going into work this morning, my lights went dim and the volt meter droped to about 11. And a few weeks ago, while sitting at a stop light, my truck almost died for no apparent reason. Maybe I need a new/better ignition coil and or distributor cap and rotor? Or maybe do I have a short some where? Dont know where to start, seeming I have had the truck since November and already had to replace the alternator and starter(This worries me).

I am hopeing that if you have read this far, you can help me fix my baby.

I don't want to tell you to take the easy/lazy way out, but if you don't have testing equipment go to auto zone they will test the whole charging system for free in an attempt to sell you parts. They have never been wrong on my truck! You don't have to buy anything from them if you don't like Auto Zone parts. If all checks out then you need to start finding bad wires, conections, etc. With what you explain, I think they will find the problem though. If that is a new alternator, that leads me to believe there is a bad connection somewhere or maybe a bad battery. If it is a short, it shouldn't be that hard to find because how you explain it it sounds like a big one if that is what it is.

Hey there
Cranking the engine over the volts will drop down to 9.5-10 volts, that is normal.
With the engine running it should be charging at around 14 volts.
With the lights and other stuff on it will drop to about 13volts.
As the other guy said I would check all the connections and make sure that they are all tight.
It almost sounds like the + cable going to the starter is loose. But that will generaly cause the engine to crank over slow and the pos. cable will get hot.
Hopefully it will be something simple for ya.

Check your ground wires and the connections. You should have a ground leading from the battery to the frame, one from the block to the frame and one from the frame to the body.

1980 Chevy 1-ton Crewcab, 500cui CaddyPowered, Th400, Np205, D60/14FF, 285/75/16...Work in Progress

my roommates truck was doing something similar a few months ago. even cut off going down the road one time. turned out the battery connections were just corroded. you have to take the little rubber grommet things off and clean out the connections inside. try that and see if it helps

Mike ~
* Earnhardt Forever *

89 Chevy K1500 - 350TBI/700R4/NP241 - 3" lift - 33's - other goodies, but not enough! [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

definitely do the easy stuff first. as mphz71 mentioned, make sure your connections are clean and snug.

powermad, that's one scarey sig pic [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

<font color=blue>Shorts</font color=blue> &lt;-- its not what you think...and don't ask what it is [img]/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif[/img]