[hbens]

When I jiggle the circles wire which goes from on of the brushes to the case of the alternator it starts charging again.  I could not get the nut out of the case so I put another wire (shown in blue) from the brush to the top of the case. It seems to be ok now..  maybe that old wire was bad??  Would that potentially be my problems??

Given your results when jiggling the wire and installing the additional wire I would put some money on that wire being faulty. I remember my father preaching to us to check the grounds and not just the positive connections. It takes a full circuit to work properly.