Took off the regulator and the black wire was burnt up. Does this mean a bad regulator? I checked all the wiring(alt/reg) and it is correct. Regulator looks clean inside, no broken wires, etc.. But during the crank cycle, the black wire heats up and melts the insulation, car will hardly turn over, or not at all. Just wondering if my regulator is bad. No real way to test these things is there? I don't have an extra to test.

More likely that your ground wire is bad.

The engine block is supposed to be connected directly to the negative battery cable. If that was removed, then the starter will ground through the accelerator cable or any other ground it can, heating up or burning something.

The factory battery cable had two bolt holes on it, the end one to the timing cover and the middle one to the body. So the factory Negative cable grounded both the body and the engine block.

im #OOPS# at electronics but dosent this happen when its drawing to much current.my corolla did the same thing, i diconnected the amp that may have gotten wet and shortened/resoldered the now crusty wire it was ok.

Good point. The ground (earth) wire for the voltage regular grounds the volatage regulator. If that component is drawing too much current it may be defective.