before putting the ground wire on the alternator, I was zero from battery to block, lost it at block to frame and to firewall. I think (gets me in trouble) that the alternator was not grounded and causing a short, or shorted with my load test. now the only thing I can thing of is, there is one spacer on the alternator that is really hard steel. don't think stainless, but not sure what it is, very hard to a file. maybe that didn't get a good ground, but shouldn't the bolt have grounded on the alt case and into the head?