so ill be driving down the road, and my voltage surges from 13 or so al the way up to almost 18, then it goes down after a bit, then back up, and so on and so forth.

when the voltage spikes, the truck loses some power, and when it returns to 13 or 14 it has full power again.

made sure all my connections were good, grounds, starter cable, cables at alternator, at relays.

the box that is mounted to the fenderwall that one of the 10 awg wires goes to, is that an external voltage regulator? if so, could this be the issue?

 

Check to see how tight/loose that belt is

 

belt is nice and tight. but it shouldnt make a difference of the belt tightness, your system should never run higher that 14 volts

 

ya but it could surge when the belt is loose, my s-10 did this, got a new belt no more surges

 

That was the first thing i thought of too.

might be worth the money to try a new belt.

 

hmm i never would have guessed. when it surges there is a bit of squealing now that you mention it... off to the auto parts store tomorrow

 

if it still does it when you replace the belt i would turn your attention to the tensioner.

 

People, think.
If the belt is loose, the only thing that can happen is that the alt pulley slips and squeaks, turning slower.
The problem is electrical. Probably the current regulator.

 

i thought i was the only one who thought that haha... well it goes from high voltage to regular voltage when i wiggle the connector around. so i changed that out. it seems that the blade style connector coming out of the alternator is the problem, i have a feeling the connection inside the alternator is going bad. im going to disassemble it as soon as i can and see whats going on.

 

i thought i was gonna go nucking futs with my s-10, new voltage regulator new alternator x2 new solenoid new ground cable and main power cables. after 2 weeks of dinking with it i found it to be my belt!

 

okay but my truck is just idling, and i can make it surge by just tweaking the terminal. and i checked it and its super tight

 

Thats nuts, just another case of good ol' mopar electonics