87 IROC, 350.

Car has a new alternator that has worked fine for the past couple months. A couple of day ago I noticed that the battery gauge started reading below 13, so i picked up some new battery terminals (my positive was stripped and kind of loose inside the battery)

After putting on a new positive, I went and drove out to do my errands for that night, while still reading like 9 on the voltmeter in the dash. After an hour or so, my car began dying. I made it to where I had to go with a battery gauge pinned all the way down and my car sputtering. After leaving it alone for ~3 hours, I had enough juice to start it up and get it over to my friend's house where it currently sits...so my assumption is that the alternator just isn't charging the battery. What could my problem be? All of the wires seem to be in the right place and tight...could it just be a crappy battery that doesn't like charging?

 

More likely your alternator is toast. When a battery wont take a charge youll get 13.5 volts from your gauge with the car running. Youll just have a hard time starting it.

 

fix't with a new alternator.