Charging systems on car assessment

This blogs about my assessment on charging systems on car in practical.

My test was on a toyota rav4 1996 I check all connection from battery to alternator that they were connected, fuses and fusible links were checked by opening fuse fuse box under the hood and  I checked the tension of  the belt by pushing down on it moved down about 4mm which means belt has good tension. now I had to determine the condition of battery for the test. The battery OCV (open circuit voltage)was 12.6v. I got this reading using a multimeter. a low result would indicate that the battery is either weak or faulty. Then it was time to check the regulator, I connected multimeter to  battery terminals and rev engine to 1500rpm-2000rpm and wait for multimeter to stop climbing( if it don't stop climbing the alternator isn't producing charge to charge battery) when it did it read 14.35v which is well within specs of 13.8-14.9v. If results were higher it would cause bulbs to blow. now was to determine the no load current. we turned on car and rev to 1500-2000rpm since it was fuel injected results had to be between 10-18amps and it was 15.5amps. this shows it s between specs and running like it should. if it was higher than specs it means regulator or battery is faulty. we then carried a load test on alternator,using a clamp meter around the cable running from battery to B terminal on alternator we start the car and get it to 2000 rpm with lights on and take reading of voltage and amps. Results I got was 14.1v and 51.6 amps. At 14.1v it showed it was holding voltage charge and current flow through alternator is within specs stated on the alternator. If voltage was lower then alternator wont be able to charge battery while car is running and when car starts it will not start. Now was to do a voltage drop test, using multimeter positive probe on positive terminal of battery and negative probe on alternator  B terminal which should be under 0.2v. Then taking probes and putting red probe on negative of battery and black probe on alternator body and too should be under 0.2v. As long as voltage drop total is under 0.5v then both results will be within specs. If there was a high voltage drop then there is a high resistance and current is not flowing properly threw alternator.