I too was inspired to take action, but I went to my favorite junk yard where the owner stepped to a shelf and plopped a $20 GM altermator on the counter. I compared it with my spare alternator and decided I needed to try further troubleshooting before trying the mod. I went home and got the meter and leads set up to try the hit the field with 12 volts and see if the output jumps routine. I started digging around the back of the alternator and wondered why there was a green lead floating loose.

Then I remembered that in addition to swapping in my spare regulator I had shimmed out the alternator with a large fender washer to improve alignment with the pump pulley and hadn't give a thought to whether the field lead had slid off with all the wrestling around. So when I went for a test drive I just thought I couldn't have a bad and a worse regulator, the alternator must be dying fast. Glad to have been wrong.