Also, are you polarizing the regulator when you replace it or hook
up a new battery? It only takes a second with a jumper wire.
There is no such thing as “polarizing” a regulator; the part that is being
polarized is the generator. It has steel screws to hold the field coils,
and while the center coil hold-downs are iron (which is not magnetic), those
screws are steel, and they will become the magnets to create the intial energy
to get the system working.
mike higgins