The technician replied " No, it isnt. The Delco cover plate is, but the regulator is an after market one.
Hum.
It's good that you got your regulator working for ten bucks, and were it a classic car
that would be the end of it.
However, what has clearly happened is that a prior owner has slipped an after-market
(read 'cheap') regulator under the cover of the one the airplane was certified with. What
that person did was deceptive, and illegal. It made the airplane legally 'unairworthy.'
If you have an electrical fire in flight, and the insurance company finds that regulator
(made more likely that you've said publicly that it's there) they won't pay off.
Now, since the regulator is a cheapie (i.e., no adjusting screws) you don't know that
it isn't perhaps more vulnerable to vibration. That may explain the over-voltage
condition that developed. The vibration conditions in an airplane are different than
they are in a '64 Ford Falcon.
Considering that all those expensive avionics as well as your back-side are depending
on that thing not to fry them, it seems to me that the realization that the regulator is not
what you (or the FAA) believed it to be, action is called for.
Best alternative is probably to go to Zeftronics (www.zeftronics.com) and let them help you
find the right electronic regulator for your application. They don't have STC's for Ercoupes,
but someone here probably has done a 337. (Sorry, my installation is for a full re-wire,
and a whopping alternator conversion.)
Greg
