[chopper]

FWIW, HighPlainsDrifter has an excellent point. Check the voltage with a good quality voltmeter and verify that the system is really putting out what the dashboard voltmeter says before getting overly excited. If the battery is really seeing 16 volts, the voltage regulator is bad.

My car had an original "contactor" style Ford external voltage regulator installed when I bought it. The alternator took a dump one night and I pulled it off the following day to have it rebuilt. Just for kicks, I took the voltage regulator to the shop with me and had it tested; it was toast, too. The friendly repairman had both the original "contactor" style and a solid-state replacement which externally looks identical to the original unit (little black box about 2X3X2 inches which had the appropriate connector to plug into the wiring harness). I installed the solid state unit and haven't had any additional problems over the past five years. I'm reasonably sure any good alternator shop should have the solid state units available.