Thanks to you all for your input, it is greatly appreciated.
A question for justhorsenround. When you converted to 8v did you experience problems mentioned in some of the responses above and others I have found on the internet?
To answer tciederman questions, the battery is connected positive to ground. Terminal connections have been cleaned and tightened recently. The voltage regulator from the original truck was toast, so I found another with the same number 1118303E. The generator number is 1107135 with another number 3E21. The Electrical Specs in the Maintenance Manual lists neither of these numbers so I can only assume both have been replaced at some point.
As I mentioned when posting this request I am looking for experience pro or con for this conversion. I am not committed to either but based on the experience from the local shop that converted several old vintage cars without any problems and not having to make VR adjustments seemed a solution. The experience with the dead battery certainly raises questions in my mind and if VR adjustments are needed upward of 40% of normal, it has to have some impact on the charging system and other components.
Reviewing the operation tests in the maintenance manual, they warn about burning relay contacts if the generator is not polarized after disconnecting any leads to the generator or VR, which I did do while trouble shooting a hi beam light problem. I did not polarize the generator so wonder if this may be part of the charging problem, whether 6 or 8 volt.
