I get a reading of 3 at an idle when checking regulator,generator and battery with the voltmeter...good or bad...chef-

The battery alone should check out a 6 volts.With the engine running at idle the generator alone will be well under 6 volts.At a higher engine sped the generator should be putting out a little over 7 volts.The regulator setting determines how many volts the gen. will produce as well as the amps.

So if the voltmeter is working properly what is wrong here?chef-

Does your battery check out at 6 volts?

You can do a search on Chevy Chatter to learn how to test your voltage regulator and your generator.

I register only 3 volts from the battery...and at an idle same for the generator and regulator
...chef-

Chef, you either have a bad battery or a bad meter you are checking the battery with, you don't happen to have the meter on AC do you? It's gotta be on volts DC.and if possible a 0-10 volt DC scale.

I'm with Macky Wacky. With only three volts in your battery your car would not start.

The car still starts fine and the meter is set as Mark say above,on DC and on a 0-10 volt DC scale?Is the gauge calibrated incorrectly?To do so you put the gauge terminals together and adjust the needle to 0,correct,chef-

Test your electrical system with another meter. If your battery only had 3 volts your car would not start.

Another thought make sure you don't have a switch that sets volt meter to half scale reading.

All the analog meters that I know of zero the ohms with the adjustment wheel or knob and the probes together. The volts, amps are not adjustable other than setting the zero. Another suggestion is to replace the battery in the meter to see if it might be the cause of the low reading. If that does not fixit then another meter is the best option as the meter must be tweeked.

I replaced the voltmeter yesterday and sure enough the old one was bad....All checks out good...at 6 volts,thanks,chef-