[Fastz06]

Thanks for all the replies.....
I finally spent some time diagnosing last night and found:

The wire only heats up with the engine running
The heat is uniform along the wire
The charging connection to the alternator was questionable..I replaced the ring terminanal and soldered the connection
Alternator checked out ok....61 amp output
I will reinstall alternator tonight and install new voltage regulator
I will report what I find.
Thinking of installing higher gage wire as a precaution.