ok...here we go again...I went back out pulled the VR...there is what looks like a capacitor
(just about like the one under the dist cap)
plugged into a connection on the back?this is obviously something a po did along the way as he spliced it to a female connector to make it fit on the vr male prong connector...I see the contacts that go to the connector plug going to the main wire harness...I made sure every ground I could see that was anywhere near the reg was sanded off and cleaned and added a new one to the frame..
here's a wrinkle..I started it back up after all this and I swear it read like a trickle charger....14.8 then momentary blips to 15.03 and back down again?when the motor was revved the voltage still stayed in these parameters?
gremlins...sheesh

wierd....I guess I need a new reg...I am going to see if all this did any good with the flicker as it gets darker outside...