Technical Need alternator upgrade advice 101-replacing generator with GM style alternator

I have a 60 Rambler which had it's generator fail. I decided to upgrade to an alternator and bought a kit from an AMC supplier-kit contains bracket and new belt adjustment bracket etc- which accepts a GM alternator style 7127-70-80's Camaro style internally regulated- no more external regulator. Instructions said run 10g wire from BAT stud on rear of alternator to hot positive cable lug on starter, Then instructs you to run white exciter wire off the plastic plug to the same hot battery lug on starter I hooked up first. Red wire out of plug goes to idiot light feed wire. Hooked up as instructed and start car up and measure 14 Volts at fast idle. All is well I figured. Come back 3 days latter and battery is stone dead. Charge battery up and start up again-check all connections etc and were still charging 14v-OK I figure. Latter that evening I'm reaching over in engine bay and happen to touch alternator and it's really hot to the touch. I disconnect power and start looking at instructions and figure that the exciter circuit is constantly being fed current by hook up to battery lug on starter- exciter is hot motor running or not with their wiring diagram-hot all the time. I call supplier who puts me in touch with guy that supplies the kits. Kit builder says I got an old instruction sheet with bad info and exciter field should not be hot all the time. I now have the exciter wire hot only when car is running. Is that the proper set up or should the exciter wire only be flashed once when the cranking circuit is working? The car sat for a week and today the alternator body was hot and car didn't crank over as fast as it usually does. I suspect maybe one of the many diodes in the alternator may of gone bad-after initial install- and resulted in in a draw or loss-Can anyone inform me on how the exciter circuit is supposed to be 'fed' for proper use? Just momentarily while cranking? or steady while motor is running and nothing when turned off? Thanks in advance. Guy who makes the kits told me a diode/s in alternator may of gone bad the way his instructions showed hook up. Never offered to reimburse me if the alternator did get burned up based on his instructions. Oh well you win some and lose some.

 

Just did this on my OT tractor. Exciter should be hot only when engine running. Depending on how vehicle is wired, some installs may require it to be connected to the accessory terminal of the ignition switch to prevent current from backfeeding such that the car still runs when you shut off the switch. That's obviously not a problem in your case. If you have an idiot light you can wire from that to the exciter and the light will work. Since you had a generator , you probably have an ammeter. You can make that work but you would have to run the charging wire through the ammeter and that 55 year old dash wiring. Scares me. I use a volt meter which only requires a 12 volt feed, lot less danger of melting wires/fire. Learned this the hard way (but not too hard) when I was about 16.

 

Wire it like this and you should be ok if the alternator is working properly.