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re: "...I will get anywhere from 13.38V -13.88V depending on accesorries used .... it was the only store open at 9PM on a wintery Sunday 6 years ago)..."
Those voltages seem a little low.
On my three cars ('84 to '93), they all start off (i.e., cold start, in the morning) charging the batteries up to about 14.2 volts, and then (as they should) let the voltage diminish to about 13.9 to 14 volts. It's basically temperature compensation -- proper charging voltage is inversely related to temperature. Ideally, it's the battery's temperature*, but it's not practical in a car, so it's related to temperature in and around the alternator -- but the gist is that the colder it is, the higher the charging temperature should be.
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Sidebar: * on cruising sailboats that contain large banks of batteries to run on-board systems for days or weeks at a time while on a blue-water cruise, and in varying climates from the tropics to the high latitudes, proper care of these expensive and vital batteries is crucial, so the best on-board charging systems employ temperature probes attached to the sides of the batteries.
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But your question may have been answered by you -- perhaps your already 6-year old battery is near the end of it's life, and your prior problem (now fixed with new brushes/regulator) may also have hastened it's demise by not keeping it charged properly. Failure to keep it properly charged isn't healthy for any battery -- all sorts of things like sulfation can build up.
Anyway, maybe it just can't be charged up to proper voltage anymore -- I'll bet that if you put a new battery in there, you'll see a new range of voltages right away.
Good luck.
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