I have a 94 se and i recently noticed my battery meter jumping and back and forth especially when i'm idled at the light. The car also feels like it wants to cut off. It was also laboring hard to start so I got the battery tested. it tested good at autozone and advance so i change the starter and still had the same problem. then i changed the crankshift and cam sensors, and still the same problem. So today i got the alternator tested at autozone and the guy told me the battery was bad. So i brought a new battery and changed it. Now my question is after I put the new battery in should my battery guage read full or at 3/4 level which it read before i swapped out the battery or is it some other problem i should look at?

Make sure your cables are clean. Pull back the boots and look to make sure you have no corrosion. All of your cables.

all the cables r good and clean...even my positive cable is new that runs the starter and alternator

Are they tight? is the check engine light on

yes it is and it'* on pretty tight

The gage is not a reliable means of determining what voltage your battery is running at. Get a cheap multimeter that will read DCV. With the engine off, checking across the 2 battery terminals should read 12 volts. With the engine running, it should be up around 14.4 volts.

ok so my voltage meter did the same thing with the new battery as it did with my old battery by moving back and forth when i'm idled at a red light. I tested the alternator again with the new battery and it read as good. So i changed my put my old battery back on. I also put on a new belt

When you say you tested the alternator and it was good, what did you do to test it? A good alternator should put out aproximately 14.4 volts at idle, and it should be a steady reading.

i had it tested with a load machine from auto zone. they tested the charge the battery and alternator holds while the engine is off and again when its on. they say the systems checked out ok

I don't mean to be difficult, but I would like to know specifically what was tested and how. A load test is typically how a battery is tested, and a battery is not tested in conjuction with the alternator. They are tested separately. The alternator test measures voltage output, not how it holds a charge.

Telling me you passed a load test only indicates the battery is okay.