[koates]

Admiral. Back in 1962 I started my 5 year Auto Electrical apprenticeship. It took me most of that time to become proficient at diagnosing, repairing and setting up all the different types of voltage regulators and generators. Regulators were the hardest item to get my head around. First you needed all of the factory specifications. Second the spare parts which at that time were available new but not now. Third the test equipment to do the job such as the variable speed motor test bench and the analog test gauges to read the settings you are tryiing to achieve. The object being to do the repair properly the first time around so that the customer went away very satisfied and did not have to return. The boss did not like come back jobs. Nearly 60 years have passed since then and most of the old auto electricians who learnt this stuff properly are dead and the current day auto electrical shops most are not too keen on working on old stuff. You can have a go at these repairs yourself if you get hold of the original FORD shop manuals and buy an analog meter test set. Not the best idea to be using digital multimeters on old generator type motor cars. An analog test set consists of a DC voltmeter reading up to about 30 volts. A DC ammeter reading up to about plus 50 amps and minus 10 amps. A heavy variable rheostat to simulate the varing battery conditions. You are not going to learn all of this in 5 minutes. Experience in knowing all the little tricks is what makes the difference here. Good luck. Regards, Kevin.