Yes, that is a normal voltage for a Vanagon alternator and yes other
brand vehicles often are higher. The real question is what voltage is
the battery or batteries seeing under load? Measure with the probes
touching right into the center of the battery posts. Then move the neg
probe to chassis ground to see if the voltage stays the same or
increases to indicate a weak battery ground connection. The charging
current uses the ground as well as the plus. If you have the stock 84
charging wires they may be degraded. I have seen a lot of these with
signs of melting or burning. VW changed to a beefer wiring scheme for
the same size alternator in later years to correct this problem. In 86+
models they ran a separate large wire from the alternator straight to
the AC unit so the heavy current needed by the AC would not have much
impact on the rest of the vehicle. If they did not do that in 84 you
might consider doing that also.

I don't know how you have your deep cycle batteries wired in but you
should really run a separate #8 wire directly from the alternator output
stud to the aux batteries if you want full charging. Proper size relay
and fuses of course should be used.

Mark

Keith Ovregaard wrote:

> ...... Sounds like the regulator is not putting out
> enough juice, so I checked it and got only 13.7V under load (headlights
> on) and the readout on the charger indicated "0" for alternator output.
> The voltage from the alt. has always been kind of low compared to my
> Subaru (14.1V) and I have heard of other Vanagon owners that they have
> also noticed low voltage.
>
> Anybody got a modification fix or any ideas? Is this a "normal" voltage
> for Vanagon alternators?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
> Keith Ovregaard
> 84 Westy "Brownie" Solar Charged Camper
> 90 Westy Syncro
>