OK Sport360, heres the lowdown I got and it made sense...If your alternator is a remanufactured unit, it is very likely that the insulators around the field terminals have not been replaced, as the reman houses usually slap the things together and do not usually concentrate on this area. I found out on my car because it would run fine but anything off idle would peg the meter. Now, if I changed the field wires on the terminals it would kill the car. When I tested the field terminals and wires with a meter, one wire would show voltage and the other would not. Try changing the field wires on the alternator to see what happens, if it still runs and the amp guage acts the same, maybe it's not a cracked insulator, but I'll bet it is!! The reman'd alternators are hit and miss in my book!!! Good luck, Geof