When I got my 84 with the 22r the guy selling it to me said it had the 3rd alternator in it within 6 months. It had a notable bearing noise but charged (unlike the first two), so he left it in and I wasn't worried about it either.... It died on me and with a new replacement still have issues. The battery is new and has been tested,all good, the voltage regulator is new as well.
I have gone trough and replaced battery cables and fixed some fraying wire on the alternators wiring harness as well, with all the good parts and wires I figured it was solved. After putting the battery back in yesterday from making sure it had a full charge, I noticed that when using the blinkers the voltage gauge bounces like the alternators bad. Should I got trough the hassle of pulling it out to have tested? Fairly sure it's not a parasitic draw, but I haven't done a meter test on the fuses yet to be sure, is there any other possible causes to the blinkers making my gauge jump? Any input would be appreciated, not looking forward to pulling the alternator out again.... Oh and the belts fairly tight so I don't think that would be it.

 

Lots of vehicles have a noticeable twitch on the voltmeter when the turn signals turn on and off. If it's a low amperage alternator it will be more noticeable. Don't condemn your alternator because of this. If you really want to know if it's doing it's job turn on all of your accessories, wipers, headlights (hi beam), heater, A/C, stereo, and emergency flashers. Then put a multi meter on it, if you are still seeing over 12.8 volts or so with the engine running I wouldn't worry at all. you are more likely to see 13.5 to 14.5 volts though

 

the alternator will put out a lot more juice at higher rpms... on some cars the blinker frequency will actually change as the engine is revved up.

like akwheeler said, put a meter on the battery posts, compare engine off vs. engine on, idle vs. revving, etc., everything else is just guesswork.

 

My readings where 12.36 for loaded and non loaded, but when I went to the local parts house to double check the load test with a better set up it came back as my battery was fine, had 63cca more than needed. But the voltage wasn't reading, came back reading 12.36 as well for loaded vs non load. Looks like now I need to find a wiring diagram of the charging system and track down what's missing or frayed/grounded

 

http://www.aa1car.com/library/charging_checks.htm

 

If it ends up being your alternator again, which I doubt it is you could always put a GM one wire on it and call it done.

 

I found the issue, their are some missing wires in the harness from some one hacking the vacuum lines out and combining wires off the master fuse box. Noticed two wire was cut off a connected really close when I was doing a voltage drop test. Everything is working properly just not getting flow back to the battery. So I'll have to do a little wirire changes. Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated, and helped a lot.

 

84s have an External Voltage Regulator, not sure how to test it but it is a little black box mounted on the Inner Fender if I recall correctly. Just want to make you aware of it.

 

Yeah mounted above the alternator on the driver fender well, that was replaced and should be fine