Please, please read this and give any advice you can give!!!

[B2r3y]

A VERY quick way to test if your ALT. is bad is to take somthing such as a knive or a screw driver (be sure it has a rubber handle) and look on the back of your alt, you should see a circle about the sizze of a 1/2 dollar. While your car is running, if you can jump it or something, take the knive or whatever and touch it to the back of the circle. If the ALT. is good then the cirlce will be magnitized and it wll hold the metal to it. If there is no magnitation then your ALT. is shot and its time to get a new one.
I learned this a long time ago and it comes in handy for this purpose. Let me know if you try this and how it works.
Bryan