Alternator? Or battery? Whats the deal?!

Okay, as if more things could'nt go wrong with my truck in the winter! I figure I may as well ask now, and gain some second opinions on the issue. That way I can figure out this dilemma. I go and get my ahircut today, and once I was done I go to start my truck. No good. Try turning it over and just makes a click sound. So I figure my battery is dead. I waited like 15-20 min. afterwards as I was trying to find someone with jumper cables. I decided I might as well try turning it over again. Whattya know, it started! So I figure it was my battery. Throughtout the day, I keep wondering whether or not I'm going to make it back home.

Being the nice guy that I was, I gave a co-worker a ride home. As I was going home, I'm listening to my subs. Once I get about 8 blocks away, I hear my system dying. I look at my head unit and it says I've only got 9 volts! 9! Thats bad, it should be 14 when the engine is running! So I turn my system off and make it home. But since I have to work in the morning, I have no way of calling someone to get it looked at. I hope that I can get a definitive answer as to what the problem is.

I hope my battery is'nt going to be dead in the morning! I dunno whats going on really, because its an optima yellowtop, and these things are damn good! Usually, when I have a higher rpm, I can see my lights and whatnot get brighter, its a constant dim now. So I conclude to myself that this may be my problem:

1. My alternator has failed, and I just ran out of juice in the battery. Hence why my battery is dead.

2. My alternator is good, but the reason why its not charging the battery is because of the cold, mixed with the belt slipping. I notice that this alternator they gave me does not have the same pulleys as the stock pulleys. Hence why the slipping is occuring. On the pulley of the alternator, I can see that the belt is slipping on the edges of it because its discoloration. The pulley is a V and ours is more like a U.

What do you guys think? If thats not it, I dunno what it could be? I was wondering if maybe I could take the pulley off of my stock alternator and put it on my new alternator? Is the pulley removable?

if you guys happen to see this, answer asap! I'd like to get to work in the morning, haha.

Sigh, well I think I figured out my problem. I checked all my connections to the alternator and battery and engine, etc. Everything looks fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. So I decided I would try and see if my belt is indeed slipping. Slipping it is, indeed! I don't get it though. I looked at the pulleys, and I was wrong. They are all like a V, even the alternators. So if the pulleys match, what the hell? I don't get how they're slipping? The tension on the belts are fine also. But even though, the alternator is exhibiting a black discoloration on the edges of the pulley. I look at the belt, and the sides are worn down.

Could it be from the cold? All I know is that I just put my battery on the charger and it is freakin' dead! I'm screwed out of work, lol.

Sounds like something thats supposed to be turning with the belts isnt like maybe the alternator pulley is frozen or bad and isnt turning as it should.Another suspect is the small belt tensioner pulley which may be bad.BJ

Sound to me likthe bearings in the alt are going out causing the tightness of the pulley and the belt slipping....and if the alt is not spinning as it should..you will not get the charge needed.

I don't recall the truck having a tensioner pulley. Unless your talking about the bracket for the alternator.

My alternator works fine. I had to remove my alt. and took both my new and stock alternator to Schucks. They took the pulleys off. But then I had to redrill my stock pulley so the hole would fit around my new alternators shaft. I had to buy a new belt because the sides were shiny and cracked! No good... $20 for a belt. I think thats ridiculous!

I just got to put in my alternator now. And I should be good! Battery is charged and ready to go!

The problem was that my aftermarket pulley did'nt match the belt shape of my truck. So switching the pulleys, now it matches. Therefore, no more bad belts, and dead battery's!

I remember someone asking to see what my alternator looks like. Well, here it is:

The lighting sucks though.