Include

[Cjhstang]

Well i think i'm down to replacing one of the last remaining components of my truck since i bought it four years ago...

The truck doesn't ever seem to wanna fully charge the batteries from the alternator...

The other day i replaced all gps, put the air filter hat back on touched the metal filter to the hot side of the gp solenoid as the hat seated to the intake, of course that kicked an impressive spark.

started the truck to test gps everything was great. truck sat for two days, temps dropped a little tried to fire her up and would turn over fast at all. batteries are new within two years, starter, terminals, wires, grounds all new.

i've had the batteries hooked up to a trickle charger over night for 12 hr intervals for the last three so i can get to and from work, but it still never fully charges (donno if 12 hours is long enough to charge 2 batteries on a trickel cell tho).

when i do drive when i get higher rpms i do get a higher voltage output. so i am getting something from the alt.

would that spark have fried the alternator?? the truck was off when it happened.
Bad regulator??

How do i test my alternator (at home) and what results would a good alternator yield?