Quote: Why don't you start by putting a volt meter on the alternator and see whats going on there. Measure with the car off, with it idleing and s-l-o-w-l-y bring up the rpm's. It shouldn't go any higher than 14.4 volts.
This won't work if there's some sort of wiring problem that separates the battery. The regulator sense may well be operating from the battery, and so the regulator "thinks" the voltage is low, and has the field ramped up trying to charge the battery
(We used to run into this with those %%%%%% diode battery isolators when they failed. They would charge the heck out of the auxiliary battery, but the main would be going dead. There's been at least one boat had a bilge explosion because of them)
