So my 1985 has had alot of problems from the get go, but thats what I wanted as its a project. Recently things have been acting a lot weirder than normal,when coming to a stop at lower rpms the car stalls occasionally but starts back up fine. The radio while driving will work most of the time but will randomly cut out, and come back. Of course the digi dash doesnt work properly or at all most of the time but I think this may be a related issue as well because sometimes it does light up but flickers randomly giving me no readings. I actually had a mechanic check it out and he said he had put a new fuse for the dash and the dash worked fine until he started the engine then it blew out immediately.

Also the AC runs fine and blows cold at idle, but if i throw it into drive the car has very little power and eventually stalls out quickly until i cut it off and start the engine again. So as you can see all these things are leading me towards the alternator or possibly a grounding issue. I did take it by advance today, but for some reason their machine wasnt working right he did tell me my battery was charging at a lower than normal level.

Any advice? I just dont want to shell out for a new alternator when the problem could be somewhere else.

 

Make sure you get the alternator checked out. I had the dummy at autozone tell me my battery was good so I replaced my starter due to a slow cranking issue. Turns out my battery was not good. I felt like smacking a 130 bucks latter or whatever I paid

 

Engine cold and idling, your dash voltmeter should read 14.3 volts, it should NOT be below 13.0 volts . As the alternator gets to its operating temperature its output voltage drops to 13.3 v on the dash voltmeter. Dash voltmeter reads low if the alternator is not charging the battery. The red battery symbol light on the dash, when lit tells you the alternator voltage is too low, or too high and if the alternator is ok, it should not be lit. Measure the voltage across the battery terminals, engine running and cold it should be 14.7v (0.3 volts drop across the ign sw, its why the dash voltmeter reads 14.3v). You can tell the state of charge in your battery by measuring its voltage at its terminals ignition off. 12.0 volts and below, discharged, charge your battery up overnight at least, with a battery charger. 12.9 volts and above, fully charged and linear in between (example, 12.5 volts 50% charged up). If your dash blows a fuse with normal 14.3 volts engine running, then the dash needs to be repaired. Most likely it is the MOV (metal oxide varistor) on the power supply board.
Radio cutting out is likely interuption of 12v power, when radio cuts out measure the voltage on both terminals of the radio fuse, this tells you that power at that point is ok or not. If ok, measure power at the unplugged power connector on the radio. The time to find where the problem is, is when it isn't working, you cannot fix something that isn't broke!
Make sure the plug on the ignition switch is fully seated.
If you don't have a test meter, get a digital VOM (voltmeter, ohmeter, milliameter) at Harbor Freight for $8, much less when they have a sale and its a decent meter.