Went to first car show of the season today, anc the car was nothing but trouble.  Luckily the show was at my friends firestone shop, so they helped out....

On the way there, I was losing voltage (have a volt gage under dash).  Car would charge, then Id hear a pop & screech, then it would start to lose voltage.  Car kept running, but eventually got to the point of no lights. gages, etc.  Occasionally would come back up, then id hear a quick screech, and same thing again.  So I figured alternator, right?  (car has a 1-wire alternator in it) Not so fast....

So we swapped out the alternator for a new one (2 actually), and it still doesnt show charging (yes, internal regulator, so that should be new too).  He load tested the battery and it came back bad (about 140 cca under load).

We put enough of a charge into the battery to get home (barely) and every once in a while on the way home, id have the same quick screech with the new alternator, and towards the end the engine would cut out when it did it.  got home (with a lot of prayers on the way!) and the battery showed about 9v.

For kicks, I tried disconnecting everything non essential (pwr top wire, stereo, etc) and had same results.  Checked and have same batt voltage at bacl of alternator with power off.

My friends theory is that the battery has an intermittent shorted cell, and thats what the problem is.  I could buy that, but I cant get my head around why the alternator wouldnt show charging?  Does his explaination make sense?

Alternator is wired with output cable to the + on starter solenoid (and has been for years w/o problem).  All good grounds, all wires are tight and in good shape.  At this point, I cant think of anything else it could even possibly be, but ???  Am I missing something, or would a bad cell cause this?  Like I said, we tried 2 alternators with the same result....  Any thoughts or anything else to check before I buy a new battery?

THANKS!

Also when running, if you were standing next to the car, you could occasionally hear what I would describe as a faint electrical crackle prior to the screech sound...and it sounded like it was from the battery area.

Ron Grove

Wauconda, IL