need help/ not charging..I think

I'm having (an electrical?) problem and before I start tearing wires apart I thought I should first determine if I have the car wired correctly.

The battery is in the trunk and I ran the battery cable up to a bulkhead terminal located near the engine compartment. From there I ran individual 10ga wire to the starter relay, the starter and thru the fuseable link to the engine compartment side of the connector (bulkhead) block.

The alternator/amp guage is broken; the needle appears to have fallen off when I re-installed the dash bezel (being replaced/repaired now). I didn't realize/notice it until it was completely installed.

Regardless, the car starts/started fine...when fully charged that is. It starts running poorly after 5 minutes (like a faulty coil)....so I replaced the coil and charged the battary and went for a ride (with the parking lights on of course).

After 60 miles, when I stopped for fuel and restarted the car, it cranked with the symptoms of a weak battery (not the hard start of too much timing).

When I arrived back home (without the lights on) I could feel a HP/power drop in the accelerator pedal....but at least I made it. I 2-amp charged it back up and it appears to have it's power back. Soooo...I thinking I got a charging problem. The first up is to check if I have it (re) wired correctly. Maybe I made a obvious mistake and did something wrong....if not....I'll go buy a meter and get to work

The only difference between this battary re-location and the other half dozen cars I've done is that on this install I ran a separate wire from the battary connection bulkhead terminal to the engine compartment fuseable link bulkhead. Does this connection need to go thru the starter relay? Could it be that simple?

Thanks in advance for your help and advise

Denny