New Alternator Bad???
 

I have an '83 Rabbit GTI with the 1.8L 8 valve and I cant seem to figure out whats wrong with my Alternator/Battery...Here's what it does, In the morning when its cold it'll start really hard(slow revolutions untill it fires) and the volt meter will read roughly 13.5V, and slowly drop over a couple minutes down to 12V even with the engine reved to 2000 RPM. When I turn the lights on it really drops, as low as 8V if I have the wipers on. My first guess was the alternator, I had it tested and it was only making 45 amps and about 13V. So naturally I changed it. After all was said and done, I fired her up and...same problem, nothing over 12. I know its exciting, because I can hear the load being put on it with the lights on, and it has a good connection to the battery. Could my "new" alternator be bad? Or is the battery going bad? I tested it with a volt meter and got a 12.38V reading. I know there is no drain, and all the connections are clean and corrosion free. Any ideas???