shorted alternator

[Will98D]

One day last year my car was idling in the garage when I started to see yellow smoke. I quicky shut it off but the smoke continued, so I rolled it outside and then disconnected the battery. As it turned out, the insulation burned completely off the wire that goes from the alternator to the starter. Thankfully it was at least an inch from the hp fuel lines and didn't burn anything other than that wire and a short section of the harness to the regulator. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm guessing that the alternator developed a dead short internally, and the juice from the battery made a toaster out of the wire. I'm about to install a replacement alternator and regulator wiring harness. Any way to test the regulator to be sure that didn't contribute to the problem? That wire is going to get a high-temp sheath all the way back to the starter this time, so if it fries again I'll have les of a chance of an inferno from a burned through fuel line.