While driving down the road, my voltage gauge drops down and my "check gauges" light comes on. Thinking I have a dead battery I continue on until I can stop on a hill and roll to start if needed. I checked my connections and all seem fine...truck starts normally and volt indicator goes up again but not to normal level. Then after a few miles it drops again. I cruise into an Autozone and have them check...all is normal per their test.
Get home and pull out my meters and begin checking things and get
11.3-11.6 volts while running. Voltage increases upon turning off and allowing to sit. Then I take the Amprobe and check for current while running and get 1.4 +/- a little bit. Checking another vehicle the same way I get 24 amps at start and then down to 20 after run- ning briefly.So I'm thinking the alternator is shot but upon reading it seems it could possibly be the PCM not grounding and initiating the charging circuit. Any thoughts? Is there a way to force the alternator to charge so I can rule that out....or as the definitive problem?