G1 charging issue

[49ford]

I'm working on a late 80's G1 I got not running and in poor shape. It had wires cut off, and a few jumpers, some house wiring, some rodent damage.
I've got wires fixed, replaced, and tidied up. I bought a new starter generator, as the old one had fried wires in the case. I put on a new voltage regulator.. I've also downloaded the manual for this cart. And for the life of me I can't understand how they check charging voltage in the manual. I've just put the voltmeter on the battery, started engine, reved it up, and it stays right at 12.5v. I've seen spikes of 17v on deceleration, occasionally 13 or 14v. But no sustained 14v charge after it revs up over 2000.
Manual says to check continuity from blk on volt reg, to neg on reverse solenoid. It has continuity with key on.
Then it says to be sure the wire it not grounded. The black wire is tied to a common ground in the elec diagram. what the heck?

[49ford]

I've seen it that you can swap the red and green wires going into the startergen to make it charge. Doesn't work on mine. Also ohm'd green and red wires to the volt reg, good.
Now, I grounded the green wire on volt reg to neg post and I have 13 plus volts. Does that mean the voltage regulator I bought is no good?

[49ford]

And another thing, do you have to polarize the voltage regulator like you had to on the old car and tractor regulators with generators?

[sho305]

You polarize the old can style but not the solid state ones (far as I know). You should only need to do that when they sit a long time and wont work. The SS ones tend to turn on and off a lot. If your battery is charged it wont charge it much, its better if you have a load you can put on it or a low charged battery. If you are seeing some charging then it should be wired right, if erratic then maybe you have a problem somewhere such as a connection. My G9 goes all over it charges a lot then nothing I don't really like the SS VR. If I had time I would find a different VR for it. When I drive at night with 50w halogen lights I can see them get brighter and less as the VR turns on and off. Tho oddly I don't remember it doing that with the stock engine, only after the clone swap and I kept all the wiring only the ignition wiring is not used. But there is some wiring into the ignitor that nobody seems to know what its for. Odd that it would affect charging so not sure on that.

[mikeasis]

The new stater generator says it all. The aftermarket stuff is crap. If you have the original have rebuilt.

Also seen a lot of the aftermarket have the little red and green wires backwards try swapping if all else fails

[49ford]

I sent my original startergen to a rebuild shop. He said something was crap, I'm sorry I forgot what, and they offered to order a new one. I agreed thinking it would be better than some chinese thing I could get off internet. It has 1yr guarantee anyhow.
The old unit had some melted wires in housing so took his word it was junk. Odd part is the starter worked, just wouldn't charge.
Wondering if new regulator is junk.
I hate just buying parts.
The new startgen DID charge over 13v when I grounded the green wire at volt reg, so its a good part.
I also switched the red and green wires at startgen and no change.

[49ford]

I bought another voltage regulator. Installed, and still not charging. And the generator will charge 13 plus volts if green wire is grounded.

[49ford]

the final two things I did before it started charging was the different voltage regulator and cleaning a positive wire connector lead that indicated continuity previously. So either a bad reg, or intermittent continuity.