[steve s]

I wonder if the generator needs to be "polarized". Hang in there; pretty soon Tom or someone else who knows what they're talking about will tell you how to do that. You touch a wire across the cutout terminals, or something like that.

Alternatively, I wonder if you've got the ammeter wired backwards. Does it show discharge when you turn on the lights? This wouldn't explain why the battery doesn't hold a charge, unless you've got a bad battery too. It wouldn't be the first time in Model A lore when two things were wrong.

Alternatively alternatively, many of us who have tired of fighting it switched to an alternator, and never looked back. But, them's fighting words for some folks.

Steve