If the battery has a shorted plate it will still show 14.5 Volts but be taking all the Amps the alt can push thru the Amp gauge.
Use all safety gear around battery acid.
I'd check to see if you have 2.5+ volts in each port of the battery.
1.Unscrew all filler caps on the battery.
2. Put the BLACK Neg cable of your VOM on the battery's Neg lug. Put the RED Pos cable of the VOM into the acid of the first hole. Should be 2.5 to 2.7 Volts DC. Yes, into the acid. You do not need to touch the lead plate inside.
3. Move the cables of the VOM up a hole and measure.... Rinse and repeat. Should be balanced at all holes.
I have seen this a few times in my 40 plus years as a tech. Battery cell problem where the volts wont go over a certain amount usually from about 13 to 14.5 but put an ammeter in series in the alt output wire and the alt is putting out all it can. I have seen well over 50 amps on cars with alt's that high of amperage and yet the battery volts wont come up enough for reg to cut alt amps back. You have to hook an ammeter up along with a voltmeter to properly diagnose that problem. Put a new battery in and problem solved. But I never checked each cell that way though. Usually a good battery reads about 12.6 or 2.1 volts per cell. Ron
