And the reason why you have to put the ammeter on the wire coming out of the alternator (
unless the ammeter reads 60+ amps right at the battery, then you know something is wrong) is because there's the slim chance that you have a transient short to ground on the wire going to the battery on the battery side of the Smiths. If you put the ammeter on the wire to the battery after that short, you won't catch the high reading because the current is running straight to ground and not to the battery. But you will catch the reading if you put the ammeter at the wire right at the alternator. Now, I really don't think you have a transient fault because 14.6v at, say, 40 amps, is almost 600 watts. That's a lot of heat (half of your typical blow drier, in fact). I think you'd see smoke, and it would probably stay shorting, not just go away. But, you have to check.
