The other night I started the 52 but ran the battery down, put it on the charger for about an hour and then drove in an evening parade parking lights only, club went for dinner, came out and flooded the old 52 got it to start on the very last grunt, drove home, guage shows plenty of charge, and about 5 miles out lights were dim and then flared very bright. Looked at the gage and it was showing a charge with lights about the usual dim. Yesterday started the car for a xmas lite cruise, had put the charger on all day, watching the gage the needle bounced between the center to near full charge, just sits there jumping back and forth, put the lights on, turn on the heater motor and it does not settle down. Am assuming the regulator is on the fritz could I be correct?

Was the needle bouncing on the charger or the ammeter on the instrument panel?If it was the ammeter<without actually testing>would guess the volt. reg.Wouldn't hurt to check gen. brushes first.

Sorry I am talking about the dash gage was the charger was not hooked up at the time. Just had the generator rebuilt, but will check for acrcing brushes anyway. Thanks!

Glyn, You probably already have done this, but there may be someone following this thread that needs the info. It sounds like the field circuit may be the problem like you say there may be something shorting the circuit either in the generator or regulator.
You may also want to check the two wires on the generator and where they connect to the regulator, did the generator appear to work normally when you first put it on after the rebuild? There is a lot of information on the chargeing system in the shop manual that covers 1949 thru 1954 chevrolets. It is available at various vendors online, ask for :

CHEVROLET PASSENGER CAR SHOP MANUAL 1949-53 MODELS, INCLUDES 1954 SUPPLEMENT (RS-34-SM)

If you have the manual already it is in section 12.

If you do invest in a new voltage regulator and you discover its not your problem all is not lost.I keep a spare volt reg. in the trunk of my cars as a back-up in event of a problem when traveling.Don't leave home with out it.

A very good bit of advise Gene. We often forget the frailties of some of our old Chevy's parts. The auto Industry had made so many improvements in reliability that we often forget how it really was back in the early decades of Chevrolet. I use a good working regulator that was bought "just in case" to trouble shoot the chargeing system with, I change it out and then I have narrowed the problem down some more.

As I do a lot of traveling with my cars I find it "comforting" to have all the essential parts with me.Over the years have had next to zero problems but still nice to know that I could make the necessary road side repairs.

I had pretty well surmised it was the Voltage Regulator, as the generator had been workin g okay. I called my friends at NAPA, they had a regulator available, installed the new regulator and all is well once again. A bit pricy but at least it was available locally. I will clean the old one up and install it to see if it functions well enough to be used as a spare. Got to get the old 52 in good shape as a group of us are considering driving the old cars up to Stettler Canada for the International show this summer.

I am curious, has anybody found the ground connection through the regulator mounting bolt to be the problem ? I am surprised that they didn't use a separate ground strap.