I hooked up some jumper cables backward for a second.

You are right they will reverse polarity, welding could cause diode issues I guess bOoster cables could I have seen lots of foks not keep track of + and - cross wiire cables on new batteries seen a few batteries blow as a result. All I have been around use a delco 22 SI 23SI or leece neville all thre only have 1 + and 1 neg no regulator excitemwire from key the armature has to spin a certain rpm to engage with at least 10 volts to engage weak batteries are usually the cause of delay engagement. Alt failure comes from using it as a batteriy charger, usually takes out brushes wich grounds out armature that gets the diodes. A 15-16 socket and cordless impact with a softface hammer makes pulley a cinch. Please forgive me if my post comes off smart alec that is not my intent as tiight as cash is for all of us I thought a better understandingG may save a few folks time and money

 

if you didn't have a impact to get the pulley off it surely would have cost less to run the old alt to a shop or possibly even the parts store you bought the alt from and had them remove your old pulley for you, would have cost far less than a new pulley.

another thing that sometimes works is to try to loosen the bolt before you take the belts off.