it depends on how dead the battery is also. as the battery charges to full the voltage will drop down.
usually on startup you get high voltage and when the engine warms up it drops to normal.
you could swap the VR and see what happens, could be a problem with the alternator also.
if somebody removed the battery connection with the car running on just the alternator that will cause a high voltage spike and damage the alternator. now that might of happened with the old cable you replaced if the car was running and somebody played around with it and the battery stopped charging with the car running the alternator could of got hit with a spike and now it puts out higher then usual voltage.
but now you are talking about changing a VR and see what happens, if the voltage is still high then swapping a alternator and see what happens.
I had to do both more then once, because i suspected the same issue you had with over charging high voltage.
I swapped 2 alternators and 5 VRs before i found out they made different VRs one for 45 amp and another for 65 amp. i was using the lower rated 45 amp units. i finally switched to a heavy duty 65 amp unit. what i then noticed was on startup the voltage was kind of high but then dropped and settled. also if i left the battery tender on the battery when the car sat then on startup the voltage would drop to normal faster..... after 8 years i stopped worrying about it. but the heavy duty VR did make a difference.
Like I said, I am going to check the connections from the plug to the alt to make sure the plug is wired right, then prolly get a new vr and try that, while I am at it I will bring the alt with me and have it checked. One side note, the battery is not the correct one for the car, it is way too big, it is a DURALAST 65-DLG, once again a "PO" creation. I called a battery place and they also told me it was wrong, too big for a '72 302. But 12 volts is 12 volts and I am assuming that wouldn't cause the charging problem, .....or would it?
