electrical issue, charging problem
 

Hi All,
i got the charging problem (again) and would like to ask how the charging system works.
briefly history: about 2 years ago i had intermittent charing issue, bought used alternator swapped regulator and all was fine. I thought brushes are not in contact no more.
week ago car discharged on me and just managed to get to near by street from where i live before it shut itself off. (lucky...)
charged the battery, and checked with multimeter (car running) only gives me about 11.45V, no matter at idle or 2000 rpm. ordered new set of brushes, replaced- nothing, swapped regulator for old one with new brushes) same thing. alternator is spinning fine, no noises. also checked voltage directly on alternator while car idling and same 11.45 +/- 03V. - it almost seems like it does charge but not enough. This could be longer term problem just never noticed as it could be tat it kept battery charged just about. Since I was doing some work on the car weekend before cars rear axle air pump was working loads so it discharged battery more than usual.

It could be that both regulators are bad, but, could alternator itself gone wrong? also is there a way of telling IBS is gone bad? Does anything else tells alternator how to charge? (ecu?) what else it could be?

cheers