Battery draw when car is off

So the only issue with the entire system seems to be the alternator light, itself. The car runs and starts just fine. It'll run off just the alternator with no problem, ether

 

Pulling a battery cable while engine is running is a good way to damage the alternator...


The alt light is controlled by the regulator, which can cause a current draw if it has a stuck contact...

 

I swapped the old mechanical regulator for a solid state electronic one. Would it still do that?

 

yep.. easy trick to avoid that is to just momentarily pull the negative cable and set it right back in place quickly enough to tell if the engine will die.

NEVER let it run like that for more than a quick second.. and I'd surely never try it on anything with an ECU running the show. Bad news for bonzo on anything newer.

best bet is to learn how to use a multimeter to test these things.