2003 Ezgo txt high voltage while running

[Savoy43A]

I have a 2003 ezgo txt with a gas robyns engine, Was having issues with power being intermittent, while I had golf cart down to wire some head lamps, I pulled the starter generator and cleaned the contacts and checked the brushes, at the time they were getting close to the full wear mark, it worked a couple weeks and then started being intermittent again, you could rotatate the starter generator and crank by hand to change the contact positioning and sometimes it would work… I went ahead and decided to just replace the starter generator instead of replacing the brushes (the internal bearings of the starter/generator had some wobble so I just replaced it) - installed with no issues exactly per the diagram as well as same as previous part, cart ran good for about 2-3 days and son was driving and the starter generator pretty much grenaded, which also made the starter/ignition solenoid stop popping, company warranty the starter generator and I replaced the solenoid, and the fuse (7.5) that was blown from my spark plug coil- cart is cranking, starting, and firing fully, but I was skeptical after the starter generator blowing up, so I wanted to check some more stuff before hitting the road -

I am getting good voltage (12.8 volts) at the battery, but when the engine is running/firing - the voltage jumps up to almost 17-18 volts at full RPMs, didn’t really trouble shoot any other than checked the green DF wire to make sure the terminal looked secure and not shorted, so I replaced the voltage regulator, but now the son of a gun jumps up to almost 18-19 volts at full rpms, the green wire that comes off the starter generator and goes back to the voltage regulator (8mm terminal) - when I disconnect it and ran a jumper back from that terminal to the voltage regulator it’s still doing the same thing so that green wire isn’t shorted to ground anywhere… so I disconnected the jumper that I put on, plus removed the green wire from the bundle, so there is literally nothing connected to the starter generator running back to the voltage regulator which should be fully removing the voltage regulator from the circuit, there is not much difference when I have the voltage regulator hooked up or not 🤦*♂️I got the voltage regulator from the local ezgo dealer— is there a chance that the voltage regulator could be bad or a way to bench check it, I am guessing that a voltage at the battery on a cart shouldn’t be that high, guessing like a car just a couple volts over the resting volts so I figured it should be somewhere around 14.5-16 at running or high rpms would be normal - any input or help would be greatly appreciated- definitely don’t want to spend more money on a starter generator or voltage regulator