Hello and sorry about the question I guess, I have spent much time and still cannot determine what regulator to use. I have a rebuilt 12 volt generator, only going to have lights running on my car, 29 ford roadster converted to 12volts. I sure would appreciate any thoughts on a decent priced regulator and does the amperage matter? 20 amp? Also A or B circuit, how do I know? Thanks for any advice, Bill
Try to find an NOS ford early 60’s 12 volt regulator. Easy to find and usually reasonable on eBay. I’ve had problems with the repo units from Napa and such. One of those came close to burning up my garage.
You have to match the regulator to the generator. If you have a Ford generator, it is a B circuit so you need a B circuit regulator. B circuit generators have an internally grounded field and you have to send power to the F terminal to get full charging out of the generator. I have been using NAPA regulators on my 57 T-Bird and they are okay. However, they don't seem to last more than 5 or 6 years. Two I got from NAPA eventually got to where the cut-out relay won't quite close on its own. If the cut-out relay won't close, the generator won't charge. The one I have on my T-Bird now is a NAPA and probably 5 years old, but the Bird doesn't get a lot of miles, maybe 3500 in the last 5 years. It's still working okay.
No I don't. It was probably on the cover, but I removed the cover, painted it black, and put an original Ford decal on it. Hold on, I went out to my shop and found a brand new one that I ordered 10 years ago and forgot about. It is a VR412SB. https://www.napaonline.com/en/search?text=VR412SB&referer=v2
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