Dilema, Battery or Alt?

[AJ]

Ok, I was looking for a aly for the 1.8 but today I messes with the car a bit more. Used the 2G to charge it. Battery was very very dead and after a few min the 1.8 fired right up. Actually had to tighten the terminals on the ground as well. If only that was my problem. So the car stay's running with the jumper cables off for a while, thinking see this is good if it stays running this long the alt may be good and I just need a new battery.

Well I can leave the car run and in about 2 minutes it will die every time. I am not 100% set that it's the alt though and I don't have any way to test it other than the simple fact the alt doesn't keep the car running on it's own. Or is this enough of a given to say the alt is the problem.

[Shane@DBPerformance]

Check voltage at the battery with the car running. If its under 12 volts with the car running, then you are just running off the battery and the alternator is either dead or the wiring to it doesn't have a good connection.

[AJ]

Well I can't test it since I don't have anything to test with but I can say everything electirical just up and dims/dies as soon as the jumper cable as taken off. Auto belts slow down, wipers slow down, lights dim, ect ect and then a min later the car dies. Just by this I'd assume the volts aren't 12v.

[Anduinlight]

well you could always :p and this is not the best way to test this :p but...
while the car is running if you pulled off the ground cabel to the battery.... if the car keeps runnig it might be your loose connection... but if it sputteres and dies, it is your alt... but that would be the sure fire way to know
It does sound like a bad alternator, mine did that too when it finally died. could drive it about 5 minutes and it would kill (this was also because the battery was bad too) the symtoms you are saying would lead to indicate an alt.
lastly just check the 1 plug into the alt, see if there is alot of black on the terminals, and you could check to make sure it is grounded the same way (pull off the 10mm with the wires run to it) and see if they are blackend or corroded
but I would assume an alternator (and a new battery in the future maybe :p)
ps as a side note... your battery sounds like it is also getting bad because you should be able to run your car for a decent amount of time with just the battery powering everything but it can't charge without the alt, so it will eventually die

[AJ]

I just ordered up a used alt with delivered with a lifetime warrenty for $45 for the beast. Figured might as well be safe and get it over with. Gonna replace the battery and terminals for the poles as well. Keep it all clean and relilable without worrying about it much.

Thanks for the input guys.