I suggest testing the components to avoid wasting money replacing things which are still good. There is a simple procedure shown in any Motor's Manual of the era which will show you how to use a jumper wire to test the alternator. By jumpering it, you put the alternator into the full charge mode and bypass the regulator. If there's no output at that point, you can assume it's the alternator/generator and not the regulator. By following the test process you won't replace any components which are still good. I would explain the test here but there are quite a few different setups out there and I can't remember off the top of my head what the alternator and regulator look like on the early ones. In this case it could be the brushes have worn out on the alternator, or the regulator has gone bad. The big stud on the alternator with the big wire should register charging voltage when the engine is running, and battery voltage when off. The small part you mention is an oil filled paper bypass capacitor which is used to suppress alternator noise in the radio. You will probably have to put that on a new alternator (if you indeed need one at all.) I also replaced my regulator with a transistorized version, as I found the contacts inside the stock ones create radio static on weak stations, and this also brought the charge level to a more even rate. Geoff Monterey CA ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to iml.webmonster@xxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm