I decided to revisit this yesterday after getting frustrated with voltage drops to 10 at idle even if it's just trying to power only the vent air motor on 1. I removed my air filter and filter shield (EFI setup) and found this which made me glad I checked.

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Regardless of this, I removed the alternator and disassembled it. The rear bearing is trashed. Maybe half of each brush was making contact with the rotor and the brush carrier was a little cracked and melted on the bottom. The alternator is done. I will be pulling my second alternator from my '57 Cadillac (originally a Hervey alternator I used to swap out the generator) to use for now until I can gather $200 for a new alternator.