Alternator charging too much.

[Racer57]

Alternator shows 14.9 at idle and goes up too 15.8v  No headlights or anything on.   Bought new regulator and it shows the exact same.   I've never had a reason to check the alternator in past because I had no reason to suspect anything wrong until I had the amp gauge changed to volts and thats when I noticed something wasn't right.  This is the alternator I have if that tells you guys anything.  Would the wrong size pulley cause it ?   Is it overcharging enough to cause problems ?

[dodj]

If you are wired in stock configuration, high resistance connections at the B/H connector can cause that. It's like this. The alt puts out, for example 14.2 volts. A high resistance connection at the B/H can drop, lets say, 1.2 volts. Now the VR sees 14.2 - 1.2 = 13.0 volts. So the VR ups the output of the alt to 15.4 because it wants to see about 14.2. (15.4-1.2 = 14.2)
Clean your connections and you will likely find your charging goes back to normal. If not corrected soon enough, it is this situation that melts the B/H connector. Poor connections (voltage drops) cause heat.

[Racer57]

If it makes any difference, I do have a bypass wire from alt to starter relay and theres no change whether its hooked up or not.

[JS29]

Confirm your voltage regulator is grounded.   

[Racer57]

Confirm your voltage regulator is grounded. 

braided strap from it to intake bolt.

[Chryco Psycho]

Pulley size makes no difference as the regulator should keep it in the right zone , do you have a volt meter to double check the voltage at the battery ?