ezgo marathon intermittant charging

[highwindco1]

Been here for a little while thread snooping and have found a lot of great info on my old marathon. i just seem to have one problem that will not allow itself to be fixed LOL.
ive got a 89 ezgo marathon with the 3pg engine. at this point i have intermittant charging issues. ive went through 4 voltage regulators and now im on the 5th. after the last regulator i bit the bullet and bought a new starter generator with new regulator at same time. its been going good staying steady 13.5v for a couple days but now its intermittantly going to 12 and not charging. i have a digtial readout i installed on dash to monitor battery voltage wired directly to the battery through key switch. these do maintain constant voltage while running am i correct?
As far as i know ive double checked all of my wiring per schematic. does the charging curcuit end up going through the forward and reverse switch? honestly thats probably the only part on the cart left to change at this point.

[cart around]

If it's attached to one of the large cables, the charging circuit goes through it. So yes, the Forward reverse switch is part of it. You can take it apart, and clean the lugs. I would clean every connection.

But first...

How intermittent? How long does it stay at 12volts? Just a few seconds, or several minutes of riding?

What RPM is it at 12 volts? Are you slowing down, or powering into it? Are you pressing enough on the pedal for the microswitch to be making contact while it is at 12 volts?

[highwindco1]

sometimes i have 13.5 volts at slow speeds around 5mph, other times i can be running full bore at 20mph and ill just barely be showing over 12v.when i turn on my lights i can really tell. it will drop down to around 11v. with the lights on i can never see over 12v. ive got some small round led lights and they only pull anout 3 amps. when it is charging the amount can be anywhere from 13.2- the highest ive see is around 14.8. it seems like there is no method to the madness. ive done a voltage drop on all the regulator wires making sure they are good. i also just tonight removed the main frame ground from the neg battery post and cleaned it.
im about to go the the local auto parts store and try to see if i can source a voltage regulator for an old tractor and give that a go lol! any regulators you know of will fit? pondering on the vr22 regulator oreilly
shows online.

[cart around]

Let's see if the generator is capable of putting out 16-18 volts.

Put it up on jacks. Remove the middle green wire from the voltage regulator, and ground it out. Put your meter on the battery terminals, and start it up.

When you rev the engine, it should climb into the high teens. I think that is the best way to determine if it's a generator problem.

Wait. Now that I re-read the first post, maybe it's your dash meter.
Do the above test with a multi meter, and compare with the dash meter.

[highwindco1]

checked charging voltage running again with my meter on battery posts. compared to my add on digital gauge on golf cart dash. found that my voltage was all the same until i turned lights on. at that point my meter read 13.5v which indicates charging to me. my gauge dropped down to 11.3...... did a little digging and it looks like i hooked up my gauge to ignition switch in series with the headlights hence my voltage drop hahaha. will have to rewire everything and test again driving down the road.