When the engine is off, and the battery is charged and connected (normal off state if it was fixed), the generator's field circuit is fully grounded through the regulator. This means that the windings that adjust the field circuit (by vibrating the field grounding points, sense that there is no voltage, and cause the points to remain closed. A test light is best for determining if this is in fact happening. I think it is not.
The test light must be a real bulb (even a headlight bulb from the tractor, an ohm meter or LED "bulb" will not load the system enough).
Remove the F terminal connection from the generator, at the generator. Attach one of the test light leads (if it has 2), or the grounding clip on the light if it has one lead and a pointed probe on the handle, to the negative (not grounded) battery terminal. Now every ground you touch will light up the test light bulb.
Touch the F terminal on the generator. I bet the test light comes on. This means the generator is grounded. Now touch the VR case. It may or may not light if not the VR is not grounded well dispite the preparations made.
If it does light, all is well with the VR ground.
Now touch the wire you removed from the Gen's F terminal. Notice how bright the light is (if it comes on at all) If the light is bright, check and compare the brightness to when you touch the point to the Field terminal at the (supposed other end of that wire) on the VR. If the brightness is different, or the bulb does not light, the wire going to the Gen's F terminal from the VR Field Terminal is bad. It may be that the existing wiring system (possibly from when it may have been wired as a light switch controlled (non-regulated)system is hiding a fault. If so, or if in doubt, use a new #12 wire to connect the VR Field terminal to the Gen's F terminal. Give that a try. Let us know the results of these tests, they load the circuits and can be more accurate than a Meter that will read incredibly small conductivity as though it were a solid wire. (some faults seem conductive when not loaded). JimN
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Today's Featured Article - Identifying Tractor Noises - by Curtis Von Fange. Listening To Your Tractor : Part 3 - In this series we are continuing to learn the fine art of listening to our tractor in hopes of keeping it running longer. One particularly important facet is to hear and identify the particular noises that our
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