Volt gauge

I got the 68' back on the road yesterday. I rode about 20 miles including 8 on 95'. Everything worked great except I noticed the volt gauge now showing about 15 to 16 volts even at idle. Usually it is at 13 to 14 and even drops lower with the lights or directionals on. I haven't had a chance to test anything yet. How would I go about testing to see if the volt gauge is giving me a faults reading? What if it's not? Time for a new alternator? My jeep has its original alternator and regulator.
Thanks.

 

Hand held multi-meter.

hook the red lead to the positive of your battery, and the black to the negative.
get a reading. un-hook one of the leads, start her up, hook up the lead again and get a reading. If it gives you the same reading as the dash gauge, then your regulator is going bad. If they are different (ie - dash gauge reads 15, and multimeter reads 13.6) then the dash gauge is reading erroneously :hurrican: . hope this helps. There are other members that are better at explaining this stuff than I am. My fingers tend to get tongue-tied.

 

I've had this happen multiple times. Once it was the regulator, once it was the gauge. just start it up and test the volatage on the battery leads. Should be like 14.5 to 15.5. See if the reading matches your gauge or not. I will say that when my gauge went bad, it read higher and higher over the course of a week or two, then eventually just pinned everytime. As far as the alternator, if you have to do any work on the alt or regulator, junk em both and get an internally regulated alternator. It cost me 20 bucks for the orignial regulator and 34 for an internally regulated alternator that was guarenteed for life. I asked for one from a 75 pontiac firebird V6