[Vwdiesel] I was all ready to pat myself on the back for fixing the Alt. ...

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

  Check your connections.  You usually get a dim glow but dim enough 
that it's only visible at night, from a bad connection, usually at the 
battery.  A jarring bump would easily cause something like that.
Sometimes just messing with the wiring will fix thing that you can't 
explain (no visible or tested problem).  Had that happen to me lately 
on a "one wire" conversion alt. on a tractor.  Didn't charge, tested 
bad, disassembled and blew it out, still tested bad, but better.  Put 
it back in and it worked better than when it was new!  <shrug>

  Could be that the reg is bad on your replacement, or the brushes 
short and just barely make contact.  You could always solder up 
your old reg or scavange a brush out of the replacement, depending 
on what you find.
   Loren