New wiring harness difficulties.

Some alternators have a black shield around the post, but not all.
Yes but has nothing to do with grounding, it just goes around the stud, probably more to keep you from hitting it with a wrench or something, just a guard.

An alternator I got recently for a project had a grounding stud, the power post is on the bottom out of the picture.
2021-11-16_005.jpg

Alan