When my car is moving the alternator stays at about 13 and when I stop it goes to about well about a quarter inch to half way above line before red zone.

How many amps do the stock alt'* put out. The ones on DP are like 160-180 amps, and what'* the diff. between high performance alt'* and heavy duty alt'*.

I'm thinking heavy duties are supposed to last longer and take more stress, wereas a high performance just cranks out a lot of power.

My two cents worth.
Went through two Dolco Alts. under warranty on my 96. At 40,000 just out of warrenty it died. Diode bridge tested bad with ohm metor. Had local rebuild shop replace bridge with heavy duty bridge for $40.00. So far so good.
The diode bridge is the curved part uuder back plastic cover, stock ones have high failure rate.

Well, I gotta tell ya, my alternators were all AC-Delco. The first one was the factory original that died from bad bearings two days after I bought the car (used in '96). The dealer swapped in a new rebuilt one for free. That lasted about four years before it quit making juice. I bought an AC-Delco rebuild from Trak Auto; that alternator lasted about six months longer than Trak Auto did, but then Lee Auto honored the warranty because they do AC-Delco rebuild distribution as well, and mine was obviously a dead AC-Delco rebuild.

So now I'm on #4, but realistically I'm not all that worried about it because it'* an easy replacement and the warranty will save me from having to spend more cash. I'm still looking forward to that A-pillar gauge pod, though, 'cause I'm putting an ammeter and voltmeter in it.

LOL, hearing everyone has gone thru like 3 or 4 alt'* I don't know which one to get or wherefrom.

tutu67-

I have run through 4 Pep Boys lifetime-guarantee alternators in 6 year. What the heck, they are free and a 5 min. job to install.

BTW- My 6 mo. old one may be failing again. Now that it has warmed up a bit, I notice my volts drop to about 13.5 at idle and approach 13, or a tad lower, at idle, with the AC on. Is it time to visit my friendly Pep Boys again? I've checked my dash gauge against a vom and the dash gauge is right on the money.

I notice when the engine is not real hot, I'm dropping about 13.5 to 14 volts.

Not yet, IMHO. Running the A/C sucks a lot of juice: HVAC blower, two cooling fans, compressor clutch... It'* not unreasonable to have the volts go a little lower under those circumstances.

Thanks Andy.