I've had trouble with charging for a while now and I finally decided that it's time to get a bigger alternator. The one that was in there was a 40A which tell me that I was ripped off When I bought exchange unit at the local auto electrian many years back (they install it free.....now I know why!).

Anyway, I bought a second hand 100A alt from the local Volvo parts store for a good price and installed a new Bosch regulator. While installing the new Alternator I had the battery on charge. When I started it up it only had 13.6V and revving upto 4000rpm (8000 alt rpm) it didn't move upto 14V without load. The voltage dropped to 13.2V with full electrical load while revving but when I dropped to idle the volts went to 12.6V and upon revving again didn't rise......but if I turned everything off and then on again it when back to the higher voltage.

It has a brand new cable from the alternator directly to the battery with a 110A rating. The earth on the alternator is new also.

The charge light faintly glows at night (2x130W headlights + 2x100 aux lamps min)

I disconnected the cable from the alternator and tested the voltage with absolutly no load and it was reading 28-31V!!!

Is this alternator stuffed also (they said they would exchange it but I want to know if there is something I've missed before I jump to conclusions)

Thanks All!!!!!