Alternator problems

[Duro5341]

Hey guys....

Well we are starting a winter storm up here, and there was about 4" of snow fell so far. One my way home tonight the alternator konked out 4 times.

Mostly as I was coming to a stop, the volts would drop right off to 12.6v, and when I reved it up it took about 7-8 seconds, and then the voltage was back up like it should be.

The alternator is about 1 year old, and the battery about the same. It has a 1000CCA battery, and the internal regulated alternator.

Recently today I backed the timing off to 7 degrees intial timing, and the idle back down to 700-750RPM..because I was having some problems with pinging when it was cold. Now I have never had this happen with this alternator, and there was alittle bit of snow that blew into the engine bay when it was parked for about 4 hours. The belt is tight, and not slipping.

I am wondering if the voltage regulator is on it's way out?. It's not like it was charging low....it just cut out completely, and everything whet really dim. I want to get this figured out, so I don't screw my good battery

Thanks
Duro