Chris,
They just don't make voltage regulators like they used to. They seem to all be coming from China & on the cheap side. They fail pretty easy. I went through 2 in 2 years myself a couple years back. Mine would just not kick-in and charge. There are a couple set of points inside the VR's, If I recall correctly, one opens to break contact to the battery when you shutdown, the other closes to charge the battery while running. If the point gap is too wide, they can't close (they use little electromagnets). There is a helper spring on them too, adjusting the spring tension helps them kick-in at the right voltage. I pulled these numbers from my manual...
Cutout relay air point gap = .020 inches, closing voltage 5 - 7 volts.
Voltage regulator air gap .075 inches. I sat down with my TO a couple years back and operated on my VR using a multimeter and adjusted it to manual... have not had any more serious problems with it. It sometimes sticks on cold days when I start-up & I have to thump it with a scrwdriver to get it to start charging again. Other than that, it's been working good. Might try tweeking your VR before converting to 12V, tweeking is free. George
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