Yeah he truly was a great man!!

 

Quick update. When I was checking the battery draw and fuses last night, I noticed that my negative battery lead was no longer bolted to the Alternator bracket. It was just hanging loose. I think I found the root cause of MY issue anyway. Before I found that, I was pulling 12.3v at the battery. After reconnecting it I started pulling 13.5v+.


Now I wonder if that was my problem all along and why my original alternator was showing a voltage regulator fault. I think it was the original alternator (170k) so replacing it was probably not too far down the road anyway.


As always, thanks everyone for the great advice.

 

Wait, you have a negative lead going to the block there?
You might just have helped me solve my own charging issue...

 

Yes. There are a few bolt holes on the passenger/left side of the alternator bracket. The one at the very top never had anything bolted to it in my truck and this is where I connect the negative end of the jumper cable when I have to jump the truck. There is another anchor point further down the left side that has 3 bolt holes. Two on the left face (top one visible in photo), and one on the front face (facing fan). The one of the front face is where I think its supposed to be connected, but my bolt was missing. I bolted mine to the lower bolt hole on the left side where the bracket for the black pipe in photo (not sure what the pipe is) is attached. I just sanded my ground and then bolted it directly to the alternator bracket, with the pipe bracket on the outside. Hope that makes sense.

 

The black pipe is the heater supply, I believe.
Mine doesn't have a ground cable going over that way. I think it may be time to install one. Thanks for the helpful pic!

 

Well, that turned out to be a bust. Turns out I do have a ground wire going over there, but it's mounted lower down on the aux bracket, on the front, so I didn't spot it at first.
Back to the hunt for me.