driving home other night , noticed ammeter went up above normal about
halfway, lites went bright then went out, changed head lites, next day
hooked up voltmeter went driving and found voltage went up 18, 19 volts
for 1 or 2 seconds. changed alternator, while holding bad alt, 2 pieces
of aluminum foil fell out, maybe that caused the intermittent hi volt
problem. too scared to put back original alt. so far new alt has
good voltages. i was lucky no more damage occurred.
before i used to change alt every 5 years regardless if still working, to
prevent weird problems.

How about your voltage regulator? Is there any corrosion on the mounting area that would prevent a good ground? do you have a spare regulator that you can swap out to see if it is bad?

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Never seen a Valiant I didn't like!