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?