Ford V8 generator- self exciting?

[Darrin Wright]

I thought I may have to look inside the generator to see if it is a 2 or 3 brush type.
But taking the easier option, I connected everything up, bought a new 12V battery, made a phone call to a friend as to how to wire up the ignition (now running a remote coil and lost the wiring instructions).
Engine is now running in the hull, placed a digital multimeter across the 2 terminals on the generator and nothing. No voltage reading.

So will continue to run the engine, it is very quite with an exhaust system fitted with mufflers (as opposed to running straight out the manifolds).
It blows a bit of black smoke, I think this is an over fuelling/tuning issue.

My next question may be, how to tune/adjust the idle evenly on the V8...