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Seller is happy to send a return shipping label and fix/replace the generator. I'm going to go that route for now and see how it goes.

Thank you for everyone's input and I'll be sure to follow up.

Before you pull the generator off, you can try one more thing. Have the car at low idle. Read the voltage between ground and the armature. On a correctly functioning generator, you should see some voltage, but below 6. Slowly rev up the engine (twist on the carb) and you should see the voltage climb, before plateauing at about 7 roughly at/above normal driving RPM's.

On yours, if the generator is the problem, I would expect the voltage reading would be quite low even at moderate RPM's.

As discussed previously, you can test the generator function by observing the armature voltage while momentarily grounding the field. Also, with the generator and regulator connected and the engine running, the armature voltage should be 7+ volts. However, this doesn't mean that the cutout is working. The cutout connects the armature to the battery when the voltage is high enough and disconnects it when the engine isn't running. This keeps the battery from shorting through the armature when the engine is stopped. I think it is normally open and closed when sufficiently energized. The cutout coil pulls against a spring that keeps the contact open until the electromagnetic force overcomes the spring. There's a tang in the regulator that is bent to change the spring length which changes the cut-in voltage. If it never closes the armature never connects to the battery. If I have something wrong or omitted here please elaborate. This is my experience from my 1951 200 with Delco.secondchancegarage.com/public/83.cfm Through a long processes of tracing OEM-supersession-substitution I arrived at a Standard VR8 which is in-stock at O'Reilly Auto Parts.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/standard-igniti ... tage-regulator/std0/vr8?q=vr8&pos=0

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