Battery Gauge Question

[dv99stroker]

Hi everyone! Just joined powerstroke.org today and this is my first post so please forgive me if a have posted this wrong. I have an early 99 powerstroke and I am having a problem with the battery gauge on my dash. The gauge bounces up and down and get maxed out very often which makes an annoying ticking sound. The truck still runs fine and I can live with the tick noise but I am nervous that it is not good for the battery gauge to be maxed out all the time. Does anybody know how to fix this problem or if it could be hurting anything? Thanks in advance for the replies!

[JSchuricht]

First thing to do is determine if it's the gauge or something else. Hook up a multimeter and see if the voltage matches the trucks volt meter when it starts bouncing.

[dv99stroker]

Thanks for the reply! Where would I get one of those meters and if there is a voltage difference what would i have to do after that?

[JSchuricht]

Radioshack, Homedepot, Walmart, Frys, etc. You can get by with one of the cheep ones for this. If the voltage is roughly the same on both meters when you see the fluctuation, it's probably the regulator in the alternator. If the voltage only changes on the dash gauge, then it's probably the cluster.

[dv99stroker]

Ok thanks for the info!