Gremlins are sometimes responsible for electrical problems.
One day last week I was doing a run-up in my 180, when I noticed the ampmeter going way up (30-ish amps).
Checked the Garmin 196 voltmeter window, and it was like at 19 volts.
Back to the hangar to pull the cowl and investigate.
Disconnected the battery.
Detached the field wires at the generator & the regulator, checked for continuity-- nope.
Oh yeah, it goes through one side of the master switch, so I turned that on-- OK, continuity is good.
Checked for shorts to ground from both ends- nope. Hooked them back up.
Pulled the cover off the Delco regulator, visual check & smell check OK, replaced cover.
Charged battery (didn't need it), reconnected, flashed between bat & arm terminals at regulator.
Fired it up, and everything worked perfectly.
I didn't actually do anything other than troubleshoot, no actual fixing involved,
so you tell me why it started working.