Service Electrical System, New Battery, Remanufactured Alternator

Battery kept dying. Took it to a shop and they said
it was a bad battery, i replaced it. Died again the
next day so I got the battery tested and it was
good. I replaced the Alternator with a
Remanufactured one from AutoZone. Now it runs
and drives fine however the dash now says Service
Electrical System. The speedometer, odometer,
turn signals, and the entire dash doesn't work. No
tire pressure, oil life, trans life, all that good stuff
you no longer can even scroll through. some side
notes that might help are that the guy at AutoZone
could not give me an answer when I asked him
how many amps the alternator I was buying put
out. He said he didn't know and it didnt say on his
computer and that "I'm sure it's the right amount".
Whatever, I took his word and got it and put it in. It
is the AutoZone Brand. Iv noticed that there are a
few fuses that get hot to the touch when the car is
running. Also probably IMPORTANT is that the
main wire from the alternator back to the fuse box
that then splits off and runs to the starter. That
wire from alternator to the fuse box has been cut in
half, the half with the fusible link that hooks on to
the alternator has been replaced with a new one
and simply put together with the other half using
an industrial metal box wire connection with two
screws that clamp down on both ends of the wire.
The wire is still roughly the same size but maybe
an inch or two longer. The reason this was done
was I thought the fusible link was bad and instead
of taking manifold off to get to the starter I came
up with that "great" idea.....very long. I apologise.
Wanted to give all details I thought important.
Thank you.