Help me out here. I'm not a car genious, but I know enough to be dangerous. I've been having issues with my battery discharging. I go to start my car, and the battery is too weak to start it. I've had the car for about 11 months now and up until a month and a half ago, I haven't had any problems. A month and half ago is when my belts broke. Due to procrastination on my part, my squeeling belts never got replaced and broke while I was driving the car. I replaced the belts and doing so caused me to also replace the alternator (long story). I ended up having to put a new fuel pump and filter on my car as well, so my car sat for almost a month while I was getting the money together for the filter and pump. This past weekend, I finally got my car to start and everything seemed normal. Monday, no problems. Tuesday morning, I had to jump my car so I could make it to work. I jumped it after work and drove to an Autozone. They tested my battery and said it was good, just needed charged. After charging it, they tested my alternator to see if it was working. However, the machine said there was negative amps running through the battery. The guy performing the test didn't seem to swift, so I didn't put much faith in the results. So I drove to another Autozone. The guy there tests my alternator and he says "It's fine." Wednesday morning, I wake up to a dead battery. After work, I take my car to the first Autozone and the woman there is sympathetic and warrantied out my battery. I put the new battery in and head off the the second autozone because the test machine at the first autozone broke shortly after I left on the previous day. The guy at the second autozone tests my alternator and says it's not working properly. I take the alternator off the car and he tests it inside the store. It's bad. He gives me a new one. I install it and retest. Before, with the old alternator, the voltage on the battery with the car running was 12.1v. With the new alternator, it was 13.4v. So I think everything is ok. Wrong. I get home from work today and I try to restart my car and the battery is dead again. I just checked to see if there was a short by removing the negative wire from the battery and connecting a test light between the wire and the negative post. The light did not come on, so I believe that there isn't a short somewhere on the car. I'm wondering if the alternator is big enough for my car. I bought it at Autozone and it has a rating of 55 amps. Autozone listed another comparable alternator for the 2.3 liter that had a rating of 70 amps. The belts are tight enough and with the alternator and battery being brand new, I assume that those aren't the cause of the problem either. Any help would greatly be appreciated!!!!

thanks....

Matt

'84 244DL