Electrical problem
1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Manual 160000 miles

The battery light keeps coming on and the battery drains until dead while running. I have replaced the alternator and had the battery tested, replaced both belts, replaced main ground to battery, fusible links and fuses visually good. Sometimes the battery light will stay off and i can tell the battery is being charged because the lights on the dash will brighten up. Then out of no where the dash lights will dim and the battery light will come on, then 5 or so miles down the road the dash lights will brighten back up and i will turn the key off and then on again and the battery light will stay off. so sometimes the battery will be getting charged and sometimes not. then there are days like today where i am sitting home from work because the battery is totally dead because the battery has'nt charged in 2 days. Sometimes it will charge just fine for two or three days, then nothing at all. Everytime i try something new it seems to work for about 2-3 days and then this starts all over again. Any ideas?

I'm going to offer an idea just so you'll know I'm here and trying to help but I don't have a wiring diagram in front of me so I'm speaking from what's in my head. Some vehicles like Dodge, Chrysler, etc... (possibly Mitsubishi) use the PCM to control the output of the alternator. It serves as the Voltage Regulator. I'm not 100% sure this is the case on your car but I'll write the information down and look when I get to work tomorrow. Then, tomorrow when I get home, I'll let you know what I found. It sounds, actually, like a poor connection somewhere between the alt. and PCM. I'll look tomorrow and see if I can offer more help.

thank- you for your input I will be looking forward to hearing back from you.

I looked it up at work... I was right. The PCM controls the field circuit to the alternator. The PCM has a 'voltage sense' input that it uses to determine the voltage in the charging system. It has a preset value built in and when the voltage goes under that value, it grounds the field wire to the alternator until the voltage rises above that value, at which time it removes the ground. This happens very fast to maintain a constant voltage under a wide range of loads on the electrical system. If the PCM stops functioning, the charging system will fail. This could be intermittent, like what you're describing. This could ALSO be the ONLY part of the PCM that has a problem so don't assume that just because everything else is working that the PCM is OK because that may not be the case. A way to check this is to disconnect the small wire connector from the alternator. With the vehicle running, and a test light connected to the POS+ battery post, probe the wire(I think it's a red wire or a black wire) and see if the light lights up. If so, a 'ground' is present, meaning the PCM IS grounding the field circuit. See if you can get your hands on a wiring diagram to be sure exactly WHICH wire it is. If NO ground is present, the PCM is NOT regulating the voltage and should be replaced. Hope this helps. Let me know if I can help more...