<VV> voltage regulator problem with "late model"

[dan and cat]

on the way to our club meeting I started to have a problem with the voltage
regulator. drove about 35 miles .. and the battery was smoken... we got it to
garys house and put a meter on it . the reading off the battery was reading 16
and 18.   shouldn't it be in the 12- 13 range correct.? ok ..its the
regulator. now all the guys from the club are working on it . to get the volts
regulated.. we tried it all.. even pulling parts off other corvairs we had
sitting around..
               I then limped it home..by disconnecting the altenator and
running on the battery.. it died once and I reconnected it and push started
the car . then hauled butt home before the battery started cooking again..I
was only 2 miles away from home.
             then I went to  my local alternator /starter rebuild shop.he has
done work for other corvair club members and did excellent work at a great
price .so i have no doubt about his ability to work on a corvair.
 so I picked up a  nice new "interstate" battery. I did this because in my
opinion if its "smoken" its shot. so he could check it out with a good
battery... also we checked out the grounds to the motor and body . we even ran
a ground direct , to be sure it was grounded.
          so i had already went to advanced auto to get a new one. it was a
"sorgensen" type"
we put it on and it only cut it down to 14-16 range.. at a idle..and jumped to
17 at 2500 or so rpms...so we tried the one that he uses as a tester in his
shop. it worked fine and  cut the current down perfect. the meter read a 12.5
and 13.5 max at higher idle.. . so I head back to "advanced" to get another
one ,  put it in and it didn't do much better then the first one I bought  and
it still doesn't work . readings again at 15-16 and higher at fast idle..so by
now I am just at a loss.. I returned the 2- sorgensen type. and the went to
"o"rielys  for the "borg warner" type"  and with that one the reading were
just as bad or worse  15-16 range and it cost lots more.
so the guy at the shop gave me his "tester regulator" to drive it home with. I
am go to get another "borg warner" type and pray it cuts down the voltage
correct way.. is this normal ? when running in the 15-17 volt range..isn't
that over charging ?  thus cooking off my battery.. or is 14-17 range
acceptable ? is this where the new out of the box voltage regulators are set
at ? are they adjustable ? or do need to just get a internally regulated
alternator and by pass the whole thing. ?  thanks for you time  ...I could
really use some feed back.. thanks o lot...

dan avallone-wfcc-2004
63 coupe-cristine
63 coupe-faith
66 vert-bad reputartion
62 brier-scooby
65 cp #12 coup-team 2k racing ol yeller