Boy, did I luck out yesterday.
The alternator in Aaron's Dart Sport died on him early this week. He hasn't had to do any major driving, mostly back and forth to school, so I found an opportunity to take it to our local alternator repair shop. $10 and two new brushes later, it was ginnin' like a new one.
The repairman commented on the "old, ragged" alternator, but everything was working fine, except the worn brushes. A complete rebuild would run about $80, so I figured we'll take our chances. I believe this is possibly the car's original one, and Aaron and I knew we were taking a chance on putting it back in after we rebuilt the car. He got about 6,000 more miles out of it.
Incidentally, I asked him about his experience with these ammeter-based Chryslers. I told him about the horror stories I've heard about melting gauges and dashes, and told him about the suggested ammeter by-pass. This shop has been around for many years (it was here when I was in high school over thirty years ago). He said he has never seen one melt down, yet. He did say he has seen loose connections at the ammeter terminals cause problems, and he has seen the plastic bulkhead connectors melt and cause connection problems, but never the dash.
I only tell this as just more insight from someone in the business for a long time, not to start arguments over the merits of the modification that many swear by (or swear at).
Jerry