One other thing it could be is a badly worn fan belt. If the belt is badly glazed or not tight. I have seen the belt slip enough to cause some of this as they get warmer and stretch a little. . Not a common problem but another place to look.

Thanks, Jim, it is a new fan belt.

OK, decided to take the car to an auto electric shop to get the dancing ammeter problem resolved. But before I did, I thought I would try one thing to see if it would make a difference. I figured the problem was a bad alternator/internal VM or some kind of ground problem. I had the alternator benchtested before and it passed, but wasn't sure if it was a valid test. I also knew the ammeter would settle down when I turned on the lights and/or fan, so maybe a ground problem existed. I checked everywhere and couldn't find a bad ground, but still thought there was something to this. So, today I attached a large wire from the back of the alternator (a small bolt on the backside) to the body frame to make sure there was not a ground issue somewhere between the alternator and the frame or body. To my surprise, the dancing ammeter is no more!!! I test drove the vehicle and had no issues, and my idle was much better! I am stunned by the simplicity of the solution but ticked off I didn't try this earlier!!:stupid:

Thought I would let everyone know that a happy ending did occur and now I can move on to so many other things to take care of ...

Thanks everyone for your assistance on this!!!

Stephen

You mentioned that there is a whirring noise that you can't quite place. When the alternator was checked, was the diode checked to make sure it is still good? If a diode goes bad, it can make a whining noise that is similar to a bad bearing. Check for AC voltage coming out of the alternator or at the battery terminals. If you measure more than .1 of AC voltage then the diode is almost certainly bad. Just a thought.....