Regulators do not have to be polarized. Generators do, by connecting a jumper wire momentarily from the BAT to ARM terminals after all the connections are made. In fact, making any sort of connection before the regulator is bolted to the body and properly grounded is risky business. The only thing any regulator does is control the output of the source of charging current, whether it's a DC generator, an alternator, or even the single phase "stator" that I'm currently having issues with on my Harley bike. That one uses a bunch of coils under a spinning permanent magnet on the engine crankshaft, and a solid state rectifier/regulator unit to turn the AC current it produces into regulated DC to keep the battery charged.
The only surefire way to check a new regulator is with an accurate volt/ampere tester like the Snap-On unit that I use, and remove the cover and make the adjustments I described by adjusting the spring tension on the points if anything is out of specification. Just bolting a regulator on without adjusting it is roughly equivalent to drawing to an inside straight in a poker game- - - -the chance of success on that is 32:1!
Jerry
