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The benefit of the cutout instead of regulator is wiring simplicity. The damage it will do to the sealed battery is significant. Its not worth the simplicity. There's a sturdy wire (10 gauge probably) from the battery terminal on the starter solenoid to the ammeter. The charging wire from the regulator or cutout (the regulator contains a cutout besides a voltage regulator element and maybe a current regulator element) goes to the other ammeter terminal. The wire from the ignition switch comes from that same ammeter terminal that the charge wire hooks to. The light switch comes off that same terminal. The cutout with a three brush current limited generator was the standard for tractors and cars in the 30s. And it was hard on batteries because it tended to overcharge them. Standards for voltage regulators on generators allow a wider range of charging voltages than is good for sealed batteries. A good solid state regulator that holds the voltage to 14.20 volts plus or minus .1 volt is good, and one of the reasons an alternator makes for longer battery life. In the 60s the SAE standard for voltage regulators allowed charging voltages over a range of 13 to 15 volts. Some didn't quite charge the battery, some fried it. The voltage regulator is the more modern charging system and its better for the battery. The cutout works kind of like a diode, but it has lower voltage drop when connected. Trouble is that it allows up to 10 amps current into the slowly running generator before it disconnects so when the engine isn't run fast, it may actually discharge the battery. That's another feature of the alternator, the diode bridge performs the cutout function with no back current which improves the system efficiency at low engine speeds. Back about 1968, I put a 12 volt VW engine in a 6 volt bug. To use the same lights and stuff, I built a solid state voltage regulator for 6 volts with a diode for cutout. It worked very well and the next new battery lasted 6 years. It treated the battery far better than the factory 6 volt regulator had. Gerald J.
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