update to my battery light/low charge problem

[Soma576@xxxx]

Hey all,

to recap, my problem is this:

for the last month or so, every now and then my battery light would flicker 
for a few seconds and then go out again, usually accompanied by a brief drop 
in voltage on my gauge, to about 10 volts or so, then it would go back up on 
it's own. this would especially happen during high RPM's, but seemed to also 
be somewhat random. then this last week, things got ugly. on the way home 
from work ( a 10 mile drive) my battery light was constantly flickering and 
my voltage was down around 8-10 for almost the entire drive home. i have a 
130 amp alternator installed by the previous owner a little over a year ago, 
with new belts this spring by myself.

anyway, i posted earlier this week on what i should inspect. i have so far 
inspected my battery connections - they are tight. i checked the front 
ground strap - i cleaned it and reattached it. i checked the rear trailing 
arm ground strap - it is still epoxied over so i decided to leave well enough 
alone. i tightened my belt (it had a little slack in it) and started the 
car. it's still only running at 8-10 volts.

now what do i do? do i have to bite the bullet and order a new alternator? 
it's hard to believe that this one hardly lasted longer than a year!! 

which DMC vendor offered the 130-amp alternator? i checked through a few 
sites tonight but no one had this alternator listed. what is the track 
record of it?? should i reduce down to the 105-amp alternator, or should i 
get the much cheaper 150 amp alternator? and is the voltage regulator 
serviceable without rebuilding the entire alternator?

any advice would be greatly appreciated about now because this is quite a 
show-stopper!

Andy