[mercoupe50]

I did some work on the problem today and have the following results. I am now charging at 14.2 volts at the alternator and have just a little fluctuation on the ammeter.
The charging circuit has 12 ga. wire which is too light for the application. At some point in time the 12 ga. wire got hot enough to melt the insulation off of the wire by a connector under the dash. This was repaired by a male/female plug connector and, as Blas pointed out, needed to be done with a bit more finesse using a butt splice. I found another hot spot going into a connector about 1 1/2 feet from the alternator. I repaired the wires and changed the regulator.
I am going to replace the 12 ga. wire with 8 ga. when I get the wiring diagrams from Blas.
Thanks Blas for all of your help.