i did forget to add one thing.. the charge controller has a photodiode to tell it when the sun is shining. i'm not positive, but i'm wondering if this thing isn't going to work unless it thinks its sunny out... that said, won't know till at least the BR is hooked up and feeding it. the documentation is, shall we say, lacking. as in, the instructions start off with 'connect wires in order indicated 1-6'. which is about the most helpful thing in the little pamphlet...
so, BR shouldn't be grounded itself (at least not to the gen), negative off of BR to gen ground. positive off of BR to one end of fuse holder, then reroute the other end of the fuse holder to TB3. in my picture, can you tell me which terminal that is? looks like maybe the top right-most since that wire has a little red ring about 1/2" away from the terminal. then disconnect the other two blue insulated leads running from the VR (top row, left two) so i can remove the VR body? what about the caps? definately one just below (visible in pic tilted about 45 degrees) and maybe another one on top (red covered cylinder).
apologies for my ignorance, but i'd really like to not make the situation worse...
ahm