A post today on the old-chevy-trucks maillist from Nate Hall might be of some help
I forgot to mention that _before_ you try to adjust anything in the regulator , disconnect the battery ground cable and draw some clean , white lint free paper through each and every points in the V.R.
untill the paper comes out clean ~ there should be some black crud deposited on the paer the first pull or two .
8 volt batteries were 4 cell 6 volt bateries that gave Eastern cars an edge in cold weather starting , they really did work O.K. , I don't like to set up the V.R. to 8 ~ 9 volts as this consumes light bulbs faster , a properly adjusted 6 volt system puts out 7.2 ~ 7.5 VDC once the battery reaches full charge and that's more than pleny to crank up an old 6 volts car with an 8 volt batery , in january or February in new Hampshire when I were a laddie .
Your 12 volt generator should be adjusted to 14.5 VDC , no more .
Lastly , DO NOT " polarize " the charging system unless it stops charging ! the field current provided when you turn on the ignition key should do it automatically .
I've seen more brandy new gennies and V.R.'s ruined by " polarizing "
than anything else ~ if you simply _must_ do this , it only takes a millisecond of touching the jumper wire , you'll maybe see a tiny spark and it's good ~ no arc welding ! . big sparks in the charging system at any time is bad , _VERY_BAD_ .
Have fun and don't be surprised if you let the <magic> smoke out of the gennie...
-Nate
Nate is a stovebolt member but I don't know how ofter he visits these days.
