[Xavier]

Update--

Pulled the alternator, its a 75amp, not 100amp as stated. Anyhow, went to Autozone (against my better judgement) and they put it on their tester and it passed with flying colors. No issues they assure me.

The battery, a two year old Optima, was reconnected to find out I could not simulate any of the above scenarios....hmmmmm? Took a volt meter to it to find it only had 6volts dc coming from it. So bad coil in the battery? Again, I took the battery to Autozone and they will test it, but it must be fully charged first. Funny thing is I recognized the battery was dead last week, reading 3v. I put it on my Harbor Freight battery charger and charged it for 4 days, not only reading 36v after 4 days of charging?

This is my second Optima battery in this car in 4 years and only a few thousand miles, first battery was leaking with a bad coil. If it is bad I am going to be pi$$ed. If it is good, I will have no idea why it lost its strength seeming that the alternator is good. And yes, the Optima battery is 2 months passed its warranty. Great...

I go to pick the battery back with its testing results in a few hours, I guess I will see what happens then.

Scoober - thanks for the feed back. When pulling the insulation and wire loom from the exciter wire, I can see a 1/2" patch where the outside of the wire just wore through, nut cut, nut broken, but wore right through the insulation. I am going to go from a 10awg to 8awg and replace both wires for insurance. Leads on the exciter wire were brown, not terrible, but the copper was turned grey. Thanks for the input.