[i am monster]

Hi everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. Thanks for all your wisdom over the last few months.

Sorry if these symptoms have been brought up before. I tried for thirty minutes to use the search function but can't quite find an answer. If there is a thread open, let me know. Anyway...

Okay. I have been working on my daily driver 87 platinum Milano for about a month now. I finally got everything working correctly, or so I thought.

First off. I am a novice at car repair. I'm an audio engineer by day and live in Omaha, Nebraska. I have not had great experiences with the two import car shops I have taken my Alfa to, so I thought I'd try to fix my problems myself. Now I'm in trouble.

I had been having issues with the battery dying and the brake lights not working. At first I checked the fuse and noticed it was blown. I replaced it and tried the brakes again. Blown. I read about issues with the pedal switch. It wasn't clicking and I took it to the local european car shop. They confirmed it's broken-ness and sold me another. Took it home, installed it and tapped the breaks - nothing. Checked the fuse and it was blown. After a while I sussed it out to be the in dash cigarette lighter blowing a fuse. I disconnected the lighter and everything seemed to be okay.

I figured the problem had something to do with the lighter. I had been dealing with frequent dead battery problems and once I had taken the lighter out of the equation, everything seemed normal. With my multi tester, I saw the battery taking and holding a charge and with a screw driver I felt the magnetic pull of the alternator when I revved the engine.

I drove it down to Autozone to double check the battery and alternator. They ran their little test and said everything was fine.

So I drove it to work. I headed to the studio at 11:00 am and broke for lunch at 6:00 pm. Walked out to the car and it started fine. Drove it, picked up food, came back. Around 1:00 am I left work and got in my car. It started up fine, but as soon as I turned on my lights, the car died.

I grabbed my multi tester and checked the voltage of the battery. It read 8.8 volts. I had brought along my battery charger and started the car. With the lights off the battery shot up to 12.5 and responded when I revved. When I shut off the car, the battery stayed consistent at 12.1 for twenty minutes. I started the car and it seemed fine. I turned the lights on...same thing. Dead Alfa.

So, I walked the seven miles home and registered on the messageboard. Argh. My legs hurt. I haven't walked that far in...well...I don't know when I walked seven straight miles before.

Oh Gods of the Alfas...Please help and recommend my next step. Is it a battery issue? Alternator? Grounding? Anything I can do or should I just take it to the shop and pay someone else to do it? Should I stop writing such a long first post?

Thank you so much for your time,
Ian Aeillo

Edit; Also, something weird that never happened before that I'm not sure, but could be related. As I was driving to work today, all of my instrument cluster lights began to randomly flash. No pattern, no rhyme or reason. Just all together the temp gauge, oil pressure, and fuel light began to quickly flash.