i havent researched yet but how do you tell you if your alternator isnt working?
i suspect its not since my battery is dead .. it jump starts and runs fine.. but when you turn it off it wont do anything but click. Its a yellow top-ish battery i got less then a year ago..
no accurate way without a meter. try unhooking your neg cable after it is running and see if it shuts down. dont rule out the optima i have had plenty of them take a poo
You can check it at the battery with a multi meter, but that only tells you the voltage. The amperage is the other part you need to know.
By what you describe, it's sounding like the battery.