In the death of an alternator…

I had a new experience a couple days ago. While visiting a friend he happened to notice his battery light on in his 86 NA GL Z31. Asked me what it meant, I figured it was a voltage reg short, so we started the car, and found the battery hovering right around 12V steadily.... thankfully I have a few take off alt's at home. Snagged one, and got it on (after changing the pulley), fired it up and it sits at 13-14V as it should now!

He mentioned when removing the old one that it was extremely hot, so I can only guess it was just the regulator just burning itself up… but this was a first to see the batt indicator illuminated on the dash with the car off, key out etc.