alternator problems

[chuck]

same problems as this thread:My battery dies but the altornator , battery, and starter checks out good. And the only thing thats got a constant hot is my MSD box, i don't have heat air or a radio in my car so could it be a bad wire some where or is it something else. I had this same set up wiring and all in a 79 regal and never had this problem what could it be. At an idle the volt gauge is sitting at 12 or below, i have to rev it up to like 2200 then it kicks the needle up to 14 and then the dummy light in the cluster comes on?
Thanks for any info, Gary
My question is will changing the pulley on my alternator to a bigger one eliminate this problem?will this enable the alternator to kick in at idle ? The alternator is a one wire set up.

 

[388bu]

You would want a smaller pulley, not a larger pulley.

 

[chuck]

alt

pulley is the smallest already

 

[388bu]

Not sure why the dummy light comes on when your alternator kicks in. I would get an ammeter and measure the current between the battery post and the negative cable to see if anything is drawing on the battery. If so, pop fuses one by one till it goes away to narrow down your search.

 

[Goob]

You should not have the 2 wire plug connected to a one-wire alternator.

The alternator may have a bad diode, draining the battery while sitting.