ok a little back ground first, my truck is a 96 xlt and it has 110k on it. i dont get to drive it but maybe one day a week and on the weekends because it is about 2 miles from my dorm room. i just put a new battey in it last week and it has sat since wed. so tonight i went to go get it and when i got there and tried to start it it took a couple tries for her to start. so i thought crap, my alternator is going out. then i looked down and say my gas gauge was on E so i went to fill up. she drank 18.7 gallons of the dino juice. so then i thought ok maybe it was just tough getting gas when i was trying to start. on the way back to my room i switched to 4 auto because of the snow and ice and whatnot. as soon as i turned the knob my battery gauge went almost down to the bottom and then went right back up. I tured all unnessicary things off, radio, 4auto, heat. when i got to the parking lot i messed with things to see if i could get the guage to do it again and it would do it but it did not go all the way down like the first time.

So my ? is is this normal is is my alternator really going bad?

thanks for all the help in advance guys!

oh and sorry for such a long post:)

If you're worried about the alternator have an auto store check it for free.

But cold craps out batteries, and it's also possible you bought a dud.

yea i was headed to the auto parts store tonight, but just wanted to see what you guys thought

The starting issue definately could've been the fuel (and you can crap out your fuel pump and filter by running it very low), and the later 4x issue could've just been a fluke.

thats what i was thinking alec, thanks for the reasurrance, but i am still going to go get stuff all checked out just to make sure

it could be the voltage regulator in your alternator but i think that the battery is just needs a good charge because when the electronic clutch in the transfer case kicked in it took a second for the voltage regular to suck more juice from the alt and it dropped to the low battery voltage for that time frame i would just take the car out for a long highway drive and see where you are from there

Make sure the battery terminals are real clean too

thanks for all the help guys. it seems to be fine tonight, i went and have everything tested and everything was good. i am just guessing that it was the low gas that mad it hard to start and i am going to pass the battery thing off as a fluke.