stock alternator burns brushes

You may have burned some wires and have an in harness cross connect between wires. If you get the battery charged up, and wind the engine up to simulate highway cruise, what does the voltage run?
As far as the wires I checked the best I can , unplugged it at field conn, at ball resistor at firewall (in and out , 2 wires) and back to starter relay , since i ve had the car the horn relay didn t work replaced it , the resistor died too and also the starter relay , so those are all new , i ve had the dash out completely to clean up all the wires (had a problem with dome light and hazard circuit) , on the same token I cleaned and tightened all connections to the cluster fuse box etc... Just to say I didnt recheck at amp gauge. I check resitance and it is all @ 0 and no continuity to ground. One thing I can mention is when I was working with the dash off if I didn t connect the amp gauge wires together the car was dead , no start no lights no fan no radio nutinn DEAD! Is this normal or am I missing a circuit somewhere? I m sorry if I am thickening up the plot here but I think more info is better.