Yesterday I was driving home when the truck started beepin at me, I looked down to see the check gauges light was on and my volt gauge was down to 8V. It stayed right on 8 until i got home.. I shut the truck off, started it back up and now it seems like its over charging. Its half way between 14V+ and the edge of the operating range.... Any ideas? Is my alternator gettin weak?????

 

Probably time for new alternator brushes.

 

This should help you :

http://www.fixinrams.com/id12.html

 

About 2 years ago mine did that 2 times. It has never done it since. I was keeping a voltmeter with me to see if it actually was not charging. I think it was and the problem is a glitch in the cluster. It was real damp and wet that year. I was out in the woods and every thing was fine then all of a sudden ding ding ding and I see the warning light. First thing I thought is I poked a hole in the fuel tank and it was the low fuel chime. Then I see low voltage 30 miles in the boonies so I shut everything off and headed home. Drove in the shop shut it off got my voltmeter and restarted it. Everything was fine. Two days later it did it again in my yard. I shut it off and restarted it and it was fine. That was 35,000 miles ago. No doubt if you have a ton of miles you may need brushes.

 

Ever figure out what was going on? Mine started doing something similar today. After driving a couple of miles the check gauges light would come on and the volt gauge was not responding. Cut the truck off and turned it back on and it was reading, but it was low. It did that twice today.

 

I just cleaned up the battery connections and greased them up a bit. If your truck is running at 9 Volts like my gauge was tellin me, there would be other problems other than a dead volt gauge... Maybe it was just a glitch or maybe cleaning the battery connections helped. I dont know. But it hasnt done it since...

 

I cleaned my battery connections and still had the same problem. Got the alternater tested at auto zone and found its only putting out 12 volts. Its still running, but looks like I need a alternater.

 

a new alternater fixed my problem.