the thing is, the alternator is connected straight to the positive terminal of the battery (i know this isn't particularly the safest thing to do but..) and all the grounds are good because i regrounded it with 8 gauge wire to the major grounding points.

So I jumpstarted my car this morning again i had to wait about 5 minutes to before i could start. drove about 3 miles to work turned off engine and put my volt meter reader to the battery post and it read 6.1 volts. last night it was 11.8 after i jumpstarted and turned off and checked with volt meter reader. sound like a drain or alternator not charging fully? i kind of am leaning towards drain since it was at 11.8 last night before i went to bed and 6.1 this morning after a drive to work. its losing power from something right? have refurbished 70amp alternator i checked the specs on my battery its actually 640 cold cranking amps its the maxx battery you get at walmart selection #5. Took my battery in today after driving there from work to get it fully charged and an hour later it came back a defective battery didnt have any cold cranking amps so i got a replacement off the shelf. this has happened twice now exact same battery type. cept for the first battery was paired with what seemed to be the stock alternator judging by the amount of rust it had, might have been newer but not much but i replaced it because i tested it at autozone said bad regulator regulator was 60 bucks and refurbished was 65 so i went with the refurbished since the old alternators fan blades were covered in rust and looked like it was grinding against the insides. also replaced belt. SO car now has new battery and I am going to put multimeter to it first thing in the morning and hopefully i find something out. I will do that test with the light as well. hope some of this info helps out further with the issue.

my high output alternator came in, installed it, and it is now charging at 15.3-6 volts at idle and 14.4 volts with maximum load (with literally everything on). is 15.3-6 too high for the car or will this be fine?

Should be fine.

What size belt are you using, though??

where did you get the HI output Alt?..How many amps does it put out?
and got any pics??

I believe the belt size is stock?

High output alternator from ace alternators on ebay. It looks exactly like the stock FC one.

legit I'm going to purchase one for sure. i tested new battery this morning at 1030 at 12.4 with everything off and let it sit until i got home at about ten tonight and tested it again at 12.4 with everything off so i guess no draw from anything thinking about replacing my new refurbished alternator with one of those high output after i get it tested to make sure its bad of course. i think it might have been a bad alternator to begin with. sweet deal baby jesus

forgot to mention it is advertised to have the capability to put out 130 amps.

for 165 bucks it better work right haha let us know if your battery explodes from the high output alternator or anything else weird happens.

the stock alternators when they get old and start failing usually charge just fine when the alternator is cold and then bleed off amps as the engine warms up, this doesn't really have anything to do with the wiring but the alternator itself.

i see tons of the stock alternators failing these days, they are just about at the end of their lifespan.

look up some of the many upgraded alternator writeups and don't bother with a reman stocker, they usually only last a few months at best.