recently, my '86 died on me. upon inspection, the battery seemed to be dead. after recharging the battery, it only lasted about a day and every time that I could charge it, it would last less and less till, the battery will not even last a mile. I cannot figure out if it could be the altinator or the battery. both are new and not even a year old.

 

sounds like alternator at first but you say its new along with the battery.
did you get the alternator at autozone or some cheap parts store like that?
i've gotten a doa alternator and starter from them.
otherwise i think there's an electrical draw somewhere.
some else will chime in with more help.

 

if you bought the battery new, i hope you have warranty on it as well. also have the starter checked out or look on the dash to make sure the voltage is reading above 12V. if not, bad alt. the alternator powers the whole car, all the battery does is assist to hold that voltage. so its gotta be the alternator or something else.

 

the voltage is not reading at all, and yes the battary and the alt. has a warranty on each. I was wondering if I should do the batt because, the alt. warranty is under the guy who I bought the car from and I can't get his imfo from him so, if it was the batt, that would be an easier fit.

 

yea, but you said the alt's not showing any reading so... take that out and go test that.