Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm having a problem with the power in my barn, (low voltage) I checked everything I could think of, but I couldn't find anything wrong, so I had a electrician check it out too. There's nothing wrong on my side of the electrical, so a call to the power company is in order.

ANYWAY, I needed to fix a power shaft and it needed to be done now, NOT when the power co. decides to show up, so I hooked my small Kubota to my pto genset, that I keep in the barn,

Then I ran a 220v HEAVY "extension cord" to the welder

and got after it!

Not my best looking welds, but I V'd the shaft out good and I'm sure it's plenty strong.

ANYWAY, that "exercised" my generator and I got a job done too.

I had never run my Pow Con 200 welder off this genset, and it did VERY good, I couldn't even tell "I" was making the power to run it.

SR

 

[90cummins]

I just posted this in the Forum for air-cooled Yanmar Diesels and Clones.
I feel it is important to be here also because it shows the negative effects of improper operation (insufficient load) and poor storage and maintenance.
I finally finished the repairs on the Chinese Leading generator.
To recap it was brought in because it was smoking, skipping and making noises and would not restart turning over like it had low compression.
The first thing I did was remove the oil filter screen which was completely blocked and showed it to the owner, his response was I didn’t know that was there!
He said the owner’s manual was destroyed in his damp cellar.
Inquiring as to how much it may cost I replied it all depends on what I find.
Pressing me for an estimate I said that 10 hours should be a reasonable time plus parts, Was I wrong!
Upon teardown I found a couple dead mice and nesting material that blocked much of the cooling system.
After I removed the engine from the silent enclosure I started to remove the rotor from the crankshaft.
This was extremely difficult. First I had to tap generator rotor the end so I could install a ½-20 bolt to push the field off the crankshaft.
It was on so tight I was fearing it was not going to come off without major damage.
I used an impact wrench to tighten/loosen it many times with an occasional sharp rap with a hammer in addition to heating the generator end with a torch being careful not to damage the generator itself.
Showing no signs of releasing I threw caution to the wind and went full tilt with my large impact tightening and loosing several times before it final came off. The only damage was to the crankshaft internal threads which a tap cleaned up.
Opening up the engine cases I expected to find a bad cam bearing but to my surprise it was fine.
Further inspection found rust patches in the cylinder and the valves were seating poorly.
The rod and main bearing had many scratches from contamination in the oil but the crankshaft was ok after I polished it with emery.
I ordered a rebuild kit consisting of gaskets with a rod bearing, main bearing and new rings & seals.
Running the hone up & down the cylinder removed the rust but there was pitting that was of no concern.
The valve seats to my surprise were in poor condition so I cut new seats with a Neway seat cutter.
I also lapped the valve and injector lifters to restore a like new finish.
After reassembling the unit I ran it to check operation and found the output voltage low at 90 volts, further inspection found the capacitor faulty.
A new capacitor was ordered and installed and it was tested again only to have it skip occasionally.
This was found to be a faulty low oil pressure circuit. The control units were sensitive to vibration and position so I attempted to order replacements. I also noticed damage to the wiring from MICE! Replacements couldn’t be found so I had to build a circuit to keep the low oil pressure system operational.
I cut the old control modules out and used two 12v relays to replace them.
After much head scratching and hours I finally had a circuit that worked properly so I could finally test the generator out.
I have a large 3 element heater to load test my generators with each element being 3500 watts.
I connected the load and started the generator, voltage was now 120/240 so I let it warm up with a 3.5kw load so I could set the engine speed for 60HZ and then let run for ½ hour at load then shut it down to check the oil filter which was clean. Generator was started again and run for 1 hour with a 3.5kw load. After 1 hour I checked the filter again and all was good.
For the final test I plugged it into my house battery backup system for 1 more run at 4kw+ and it ran flawlessly.
The total hours spent troubleshooting was in excess of 25 however 10hrs was my quote.
The total was $800 with 300 being for parts.
The owner operated and stored this generator in every worst possible way.
It was stored in a wet cellar on the ground which promoted rust and mouse damage.
It was always run during power outages with minimal load which caused a wet stacked condition and cylinder corrosion.
He never removed and cleaned the oil filter screen which may have contributed to the erratic operation.
The air filter was not tightened properly which allowed vibration to enlarge the stud hold down hole so it could not properly seal.
When he picks it up I will go to his house and demonstrate how much load he can put on it and how to keep a reasonable load on it at all times.
A killawatt meter and clamp-on meter are essential to properly measure and manage loads.
Last piece of advice will be to store it in a dryer environment after running it with a good load on it and possibly hang the generator from a beam when not in use so mice cannot get into it again.
90cummins

 

[3930dave]

I'm having a problem with the power in my barn, (low voltage) I checked everything I could think of, but I couldn't find anything wrong, so I had a electrician check it out too. There's nothing wrong on my side of the electrical, so a call to the power company is in order.

ANYWAY, I needed to fix a power shaft and it needed to be done now, NOT when the power co. decides to show up, so I hooked my small Kubota to my pto genset, that I keep in the barn,

Then I ran a 220v HEAVY "extension cord" to the welder

and got after it!

Not my best looking welds, but I V'd the shaft out good and I'm sure it's plenty strong.

ANYWAY, that "exercised" my generator and I got a job done too.

I had never run my Pow Con 200 welder off this genset, and it did VERY good, I couldn't even tell "I" was making the power to run it.

SR

A great test + useful work done: doesn't get much better than that !

Definitely nice not having to wait for your utility to find the correct RoundTuit for the job....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I just posted this in the Forum for air-cooled Yanmar Diesels and Clones.
I feel it is important to be here also because it shows the negative effects of improper operation (insufficient load) and poor storage and maintenance.
I finally finished the repairs on the Chinese Leading generator.
To recap it was brought in because it was smoking, skipping and making noises and would not restart turning over like it had low compression.
The first thing I did was remove the oil filter screen which was completely blocked and showed it to the owner, his response was I didn稚 know that was there!
He said the owner痴 manual was destroyed in his damp cellar.
Inquiring as to how much it may cost I replied it all depends on what I find.
Pressing me for an estimate I said that 10 hours should be a reasonable time plus parts, Was I wrong!
Upon teardown I found a couple dead mice and nesting material that blocked much of the cooling system.
After I removed the engine from the silent enclosure I started to remove the rotor from the crankshaft.
This was extremely difficult. First I had to tap generator rotor the end so I could install a ｽ-20 bolt to push the field off the crankshaft.
It was on so tight I was fearing it was not going to come off without major damage.
I used an impact wrench to tighten/loosen it many times with an occasional sharp rap with a hammer in addition to heating the generator end with a torch being careful not to damage the generator itself.
Showing no signs of releasing I threw caution to the wind and went full tilt with my large impact tightening and loosing several times before it final came off. The only damage was to the crankshaft internal threads which a tap cleaned up.
Opening up the engine cases I expected to find a bad cam bearing but to my surprise it was fine.
Further inspection found rust patches in the cylinder and the valves were seating poorly.
The rod and main bearing had many scratches from contamination in the oil but the crankshaft was ok after I polished it with emery.
I ordered a rebuild kit consisting of gaskets with a rod bearing, main bearing and new rings & seals.
Running the hone up & down the cylinder removed the rust but there was pitting that was of no concern.
The valve seats to my surprise were in poor condition so I cut new seats with a Neway seat cutter.
I also lapped the valve and injector lifters to restore a like new finish.
After reassembling the unit I ran it to check operation and found the output voltage low at 90 volts, further inspection found the capacitor faulty.
A new capacitor was ordered and installed and it was tested again only to have it skip occasionally.
This was found to be a faulty low oil pressure circuit. The control units were sensitive to vibration and position so I attempted to order replacements. I also noticed damage to the wiring from MICE! Replacements couldn稚 be found so I had to build a circuit to keep the low oil pressure system operational.
I cut the old control modules out and used two 12v relays to replace them.
After much head scratching and hours I finally had a circuit that worked properly so I could finally test the generator out.
I have a large 3 element heater to load test my generators with each element being 3500 watts.
I connected the load and started the generator, voltage was now 120/240 so I let it warm up with a 3.5kw load so I could set the engine speed for 60HZ and then let run for ｽ hour at load then shut it down to check the oil filter which was clean. Generator was started again and run for 1 hour with a 3.5kw load. After 1 hour I checked the filter again and all was good.
For the final test I plugged it into my house battery backup system for 1 more run at 4kw+ and it ran flawlessly.
The total hours spent troubleshooting was in excess of 25 however 10hrs was my quote.
The total was $800 with 300 being for parts.
The owner operated and stored this generator in every worst possible way.
It was stored in a wet cellar on the ground which promoted rust and mouse damage.
It was always run during power outages with minimal load which caused a wet stacked condition and cylinder corrosion.
He never removed and cleaned the oil filter screen which may have contributed to the erratic operation.
The air filter was not tightened properly which allowed vibration to enlarge the stud hold down hole so it could not properly seal.
When he picks it up I will go to his house and demonstrate how much load he can put on it and how to keep a reasonable load on it at all times.
A killawatt meter and clamp-on meter are essential to properly measure and manage loads.
Last piece of advice will be to store it in a dryer environment after running it with a good load on it and possibly hang the generator from a beam when not in use so mice cannot get into it again.
90cummins

Wow 90, even with your skills, that was a battle.

Thanks for posting that here, as it's a good illustration of a few things....

Mice can cause an incredible amount of damage, even just with nesting material - I've seen huge nests packed into RV generators.

Sounds like the oil was neglected along with everything else, but even so, that is an incredible amount of internal corrosion and damage - if anyone ever needed an example of why the corrosion protection of oil matters, that is a great read.

I hope that owner learned something, and appreciates how much of a break they got on that repair.

Rgds, D.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

A great test + useful work done: doesn't get much better than that !

Definitely nice not having to wait for your utility to find the correct RoundTuit for the job....

Rgds, D.

Thanks... I thought I'd have to put a bigger tractor on the genset for welding, but it absolutely didn't need it.

As you can see in the pict., I have a compressor on the genset trailer for air, away from the shop. It works perfectly and it's been REALLY handy!

SR

 

[3930dave]

Thanks... I thought I'd have to put a bigger tractor on the genset for welding, but it absolutely didn't need it.

As you can see in the pict., I have a compressor on the genset trailer for air, away from the shop. It works perfectly and it's been REALLY handy!

SR

Nice combo, with both on the trailer.

Torque. When you need work done, it is impressive what even a smaller diesel can do.

Rgds, D.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

After not starting for 2+ years this morning I made progress with the KOHLER 5CKM21-RV.

Initially I was not getting any spark to the plugs then I noticed gas was running out of the carb air intake side.

This morning I checked the like 1 amp fuse by the on engine mounted starting switch and it fired up after I reseated it but was loading up so bad and gas was running out the carb intake that it died. Finally I took off the gas line coming from the fuel tank. After some trial and error I got it to run so so by feeding it carb cleaner. It ran a couple minutes or so because the cooling fins felt a little warmer than the 60 air temps before I ran out of carb cleaner.

I did reconnect the fuel inline and it did start but gas started coming out of the carb air intake opening and it loaded up and died. I am going to get some more carb cleaner and try to get it warmed up since it has not been running in a long time plus all of the gas was not good for the cylinders and rings.

Any thought on why the gas is coming out of the air intake when it is running or just trying to start it?

It is like there is no carb and the electric fuel pump is just dumping into the engine. I have manually unchoked the choke.

Well at least now I know we have spark and know it is a fuel issue. Hearing it even half way run was music to my ears. If there was a long term power outage since we have electric heat we could stay in the motor home and keep the house above freezing and for the bathroom if the MH generator is working. That way we would not have to run the home backup generator all of the time.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

For one thing, that's what happens when the float in the carb sticks open.

SR

 

[LittleBill21]

For one thing, that's what happens when the float in the carb sticks open.

SR

same thing i would have said

 

[ultrarunner]

Float needle is stuck... happens here a lot as does the main jet since the fuel mandated changed.

Sometimes a tap from a wood dowel will free but I'm hesitant to recommend after a friend hit the pot metal carb with a hammer and knocked it off.