Bleed over from circuit A to D in postwar ZW

Be sure the roller arms are not touching.  If the inner arms were removed, covered by the rectifier bracket, the insulation has to be carefully reinstalled. I would inspect the wire connections in accordance with the diagram is the Greenberg repair manual.

Put a load on the A and D post and try it  again.  Just a light bulb on each will do. Digital meters can  also be used as random number generators.

I put a load on 1 post and it did not change  will try on both posts  

if that doesn’t work I will go through the wiring diagram — as you don’t know what’s been done to it in its lifetime

Those rollers are the transformer coil taps. Put a piece of card stock under the A and D rollers and there should be no voltage on either. You could also verify the voltage on the individual square copper wires (transformer turns). The wire to U should go from about 6 to 16 volts.   If there is a connection between A and D that is not supposed to be there, it is shorting the windings between the two contact points in the transformer windings. One of the weak points of the ZW is that there is no circuit protection for A to B to C to D shorts, so this should be a point of concern.

This morning I put a load (2-18volt bulbs) on Post A and 1 bulb on Post D  none of the bulbs lite when power applied  

however with card stock under the A & D rollers get right at 5 volts

Completely normal.

Your inexpensive high-resistance VOM is measuring the capacitive coupling potential.

I am using a wavetek DM28XT meter

thanks

Most of the ZW's that I work on have this phenomenon that you described above.  I use a Klein low-voltage meter and it will read zero on D when power is applied to A and vice-versa.  I have heard it referred to as "ghost voltage".  In one of our old apartments, the knob-and-tube wiring would read voltage (sometimes up to 60 volts) when the switch was turned off!  That was when I invested in the low-Z meter.