As stated before, verify the gauge’s reading with a multimeter. You can get cheap analog ones that will do the job, but an auto ranging digital meter saves some head scratching. $60 can get you a pretty good one, and they’re good to have if you do your own wrenching, anyways.

Good luck, I hope it’s just the gauge.

 

Everyone should just get one of these and quit screwing around with the dash gauge since the gauge can be bad.


https://imgur.com/a/head-unit-12v-us...isplay-vHLiIxw

I always have a digital reading of my voltage to the hundredths of a volt... It's very accurate too I tested against two of my multimeters... was off by 0.05V or so which can just be resistance/voltage drop since I'm checking voltage at 2 diff locations.

 

I've got digital volt meters but when I add gauges, I like to go with analog ones and clock them so I can tell at a glance if there's an issue.

 

Yep. Old Skool. Real familiar with that.

 

There are a bunch of young kids, male and female both, around here that I have hope for. They ask questions, don't argue when I try to tell them something and seem to have a knack for mechanical stuff. If I show them a tip or trick, I might see it at a car show down the road. I can tell which know what they are doing and which will have issues by talking about battery connections. I grit my teeth when I see TV shows working on cars and they unhook the power, NOT the ground connection. Ground should be the first cable unhooked and the last to reattach.