I swapped out my original (118kmi) regulator yesterday for a Hella unit I picked up on eBay.
The job was a bit of a pain, but a trick I tried was to tie the brushes in with a thin piece of string, get the regulator in and the screws tightened a few turns, then cut the string to release the brushes and pull it out with needle nose pliers. It took 3 tries to get the string set to the proper tension, but as my friends say on the other side of the pond, it worked a treat.
The brushes were worn down to nubs, so the timing was right. But the strange thing is, the voltage at the gauge has actually dropped. It runs between 12 and 13 after it charges back the loss from starting. I expected more, but it seems to start and run fine, so I am going to go with it and clean the grounds this week.
Anyone want to remind me where the body grounds are located?