Polarizing Generator / Regulator

[Bill K]

Thanks to fellow Club Members, and this forum I now know that I have my generator and regulator properly wired.
Now for the issue of polarization - I have the following questions:
If a generator has not been hooked up to the regulator, (ie: not doing any charging, but still belted to the engine) but has been run from time to time via cranking and running of the engine, does it still need polarization?
If it doesn't need polarization, but you still polarize it, does that hurt anything?
I'm told the regulator does not need polarization, but if you do polarize it, you are in essence polarizing the generator.
Is this true? If so that would be fine with me, since I think you have to wire the generator to make it spin in order to polarize it, so polarizing it via the regulator would be fine with me since I wouldn't have to take off the belt in order to spin the generator.
Do you polarize the regulator by shorting across the field and armature terminals (while running I assume)
Help with this kind of stuff is most appreciated.

[David O']

Bill, you do not normally need to polarize a generator. If you got it wired right and the dash bulb is in the circuit, fire the engine up and see if the light goes out. If it does, then the generator is working. If you do not get the right results, just take a screwdriver and for an instant touch the df terminal to the ground (side of the generator).
Do not touch both of the terminals on the genrator together!
If this doesn't work, do the same thing to the output side of the generator. It normally isn't neccary to do anything to the generator....just fire the thing up!