Hello everyone, Sometime this past year I acquired a 1991 4WD Subaru Sambar KS4. I love the thing to pieces but to my disappointment have been having electrical issues and was wondering if my alternator might need replacing. The alternator model is a Denso 23700KA500. My issues started shortly after my Kei truck was delivered. I drove around and began having issues stalling out at stop signs around my neighborhood. I took it back to my driveway and drove it back and forth , eventually stalling out and finding myself unable to start the engine. I checked and replaced the old, swollen battery and my truck started up immediately. However, after driving back and forth, or leaving my truck alone for a week, I noticed the battery would simply drain and the truck would fail, again, to start. Last week, I took a multimeter to my battery (after charging it overnight) and to my alternator. Over time, with the engine running, my battery drained from 12.4V to 12.03V. Measuring my alternator gave me a read of ~11.8V (with only the engine running) and ~10.5V (with the AC cranked and my headlights turned on). I’ve only owned one car in my life, and that was 10 years ago, and I never had any issues with it, so this is my first time working on my own vehicle, but my understanding is this: if my Sambar was merely having an issue of a poor ground connection / other wiring issue, my alternator should still read a healthy 13-14V and be supplying that charge to the battery. I also expected my alternator to kick on and read a higher voltage when the AC or lights went on, but instead I saw the belt running the whole time and the voltage reading just stayed low. Does it sound like it’s time to replace the alternator or is there something else I should be looking for? I don't recall the make of the replacement battery at this moment, but I can't imagine it would explain the discrepancy between the (lower voltage) alternator and its own output. I noticed https://minitrucktalk.com/threads/need-sambar-alternator.21246/ has a list of alternators that should work as an adequate replacement for my Denso, so shopping around for a new one shouldn’t be too terrible. Thanks in advance.
