I thought Id just post this as it may help some guys

[bob]

"Ive got a neighbor that Just purchased a 1987 corvette!! its in decent shape ,stock..Rides and drives great...but hes having problems with the dash lights flickering and its hard to start, I got out a multi meter ( watching GRUMPY work does help at times) and noticed that the voltage from the alternator on the pos battery terminal was only 10.5 volts ,So we temporarily replaced the Alt with an new one, I had on my car that looked identical, and it still reads 10-11 volts..Anything else I could check???"

 

[bob]

NEVER MIND!
I called grumpy and he asked me to clean and replace the connections on both battery terminals on both ends, the result was 14.3 volts at the battery at idle, the battery cables were defective and badly corroded, a trip to NAPA, and new cables has it running fine! but it was far from obvious until they were removed and carefully inspected

 

[grumpyvette]

thats a VERY COMMON problem with older cars, I had a guy replace his $200 starter on the car he just bought that the previous owner sold as it was (UN-RELIABLE) the previous owner had replaced the battery and the alternator, and sold the car because he didn,t want to dump any more money in that " P.O. CRAP CAR" well the whole problem turned out to be a pos. battery cable that was so corroded is was mostly white/green powder held in a red plastic tube when it was removed