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A little known MEP fact

C

Chainbreaker

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Guyfang said:
STILL raining.
Click to expand...
Send some rain our way please! We have an 17,000+ acre forest fire Cedar Creek fire several miles to the SE of us that has been burning out of control for a month plus. However, winds shifted to easterly & were forecasted to gust to 40 mph. So, our rural electric utility provider scheduled a preemptive power shut-off for a day+ as a safety precaution.

It presented an opportunity to exercise all 3 of my MEP-002a's 2 up at house & 1 servicing our shop & barn. I was down at our barn/shop with that generator running great doing some work at horse barn when I looked up at house and it was suddenly pitch black as in no lights on... uh ohhh. Flew up to house & #1 genset had gone silent. Strangely generator had suddenly shut down after running perfectly for 5+ hours. I restarted it and it started up & ran fine for another 15 minutes and then quit again... hmmm. OK, need to quickly reestablish power at house so quickly switched to my #2 genset and began trouble shooting #1 genset after it cooled down.

Then when I tried to start Genset #1, it only ran until I released the start switch. OK, good indicator of where the problem lies. Knowing there are only 2 components in the MEP-002/-003 gensets safety circuit that are bypassed (Temp & Oil Pressure) when start switch is held. Plus knowing the genset had shut down after running 5+ hours, much of it running in 90+ heat of day, & that oil pressure had been consistently reading 40+ psi when running (oil pressure switch appeared good visibly no leaks around it). So, I decided to take a somewhat educated guess & took a shot & replaced the temperature switch at cylinders. Since its a 1986 vintage with 1780 hrs on Hobbs given that behavior... it just might have a problematic temp switch under the cooling shutter shroud that I have never set eyes on. When I removed the temp switch the leads were badly rusted which further supported my theory it was bad or making intermittent contact.

So, I Installed shiny new temp switch & used DeOxIt cleaner on wiring harness leads & same result, it started immediately & ran fine and quit after I released start switch. OK, only thing left is to replace oil pressure switch as I have spares for that too. Bingo, that was the culprit its back up and running great. After I got it running for about an hour+ the power company reestablished electrical service (PowerBack alarm began screaming power was back on). Anyway, it was a good exercise to run all 3 generators in good weather for several hours and I found a problem OP sensor switch in the process and the winds died down and fire so far has stayed mostly in National Forest area and not encroached any further towards Westward cities.

In retrospect, I could have got out my multimeter & tested both the temp switch & oil pressure gauge but given the symptoms & that I had never had the shutter shroud off I decided visual inspection and quick parts swapping was prudent given the circumstances. All in all, it was a great pre-winter drill plus I fixed a problem that reared its head during good wrenching weather.

Only thing better would have been to have BBQ 🐔 🍗 on the grill & cold 🍻waiting after I finished. ;):p
 
C

Chainbreaker

Well-known member
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Location
Oregon
Guyfang said:
And rain!
Click to expand...
Please send over some of that rain our way! If it doesn't start raining soon, I'm going to start crying in my beer.

Its extremely dry & quite smokey today as I look out the window over the valley below. I can barely see the next ridge line 1/4 mile away. I closed up the house tightly. AC has smoke filter plus I have some other plug-in HEPA/smoke filters running to cleanse indoor air. Only kind of smoke I want to smell this time of year is BBQ grill smoke!

Thankfully, all my generators are ready for action should we lose power again.
 
Guyfang

Guyfang

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The worlds geratest beer, comes from Europe.

The worlds greatest European beer, comes from Germany.

The worlds greatest German beer, comes from Bayern.

The worlds greatest Bayerischen beer comes from Franken.

The worlds greatest Fränkischen beer comes from Unterfranken.

The world greatest Unterfrankishen beer comes from Landkreis Bamberg and Landkreis Lichtenfels.

Two guesses where I live, and the first two guesses don't count.
 
Light in the Dark

Light in the Dark

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Chainbreaker said:
Send some rain our way please! We have an 17,000+ acre forest fire Cedar Creek fire several miles to the SE of us that has been burning out of control for a month plus. However, winds shifted to easterly & were forecasted to gust to 40 mph. So, our rural electric utility provider scheduled a preemptive power shut-off for a day+ as a safety precaution.

It presented an opportunity to exercise all 3 of my MEP-002a's 2 up at house & 1 servicing our shop & barn. I was down at our barn/shop with that generator running great doing some work at horse barn when I looked up at house and it was suddenly pitch black as in no lights on... uh ohhh. Flew up to house & #1 genset had gone silent. Strangely generator had suddenly shut down after running perfectly for 5+ hours. I restarted it and it started up & ran fine for another 15 minutes and then quit again... hmmm. OK, need to quickly reestablish power at house so quickly switched to my #2 genset and began trouble shooting #1 genset after it cooled down.

Then when I tried to start Genset #1, it only ran until I released the start switch. OK, good indicator of where the problem lies. Knowing there are only 2 components in the MEP-002/-003 gensets safety circuit that are bypassed (Temp & Oil Pressure) when start switch is held. Plus knowing the genset had shut down after running 5+ hours, much of it running in 90+ heat of day, & that oil pressure had been consistently reading 40+ psi when running (oil pressure switch appeared good visibly no leaks around it). So, I decided to take a somewhat educated guess & took a shot & replaced the temperature switch at cylinders. Since its a 1986 vintage with 1780 hrs on Hobbs given that behavior... it just might have a problematic temp switch under the cooling shutter shroud that I have never set eyes on. When I removed the temp switch the leads were badly rusted which further supported my theory it was bad or making intermittent contact.

So, I Installed shiny new temp switch & used DeOxIt cleaner on wiring harness leads & same result, it started immediately & ran fine and quit after I released start switch. OK, only thing left is to replace oil pressure switch as I have spares for that too. Bingo, that was the culprit its back up and running great. After I got it running for about an hour+ the power company reestablished electrical service (PowerBack alarm began screaming power was back on). Anyway, it was a good exercise to run all 3 generators in good weather for several hours and I found a problem OP sensor switch in the process and the winds died down and fire so far has stayed mostly in National Forest area and not encroached any further towards Westward cities.

In retrospect, I could have got out my multimeter & tested both the temp switch & oil pressure gauge but given the symptoms & that I had never had the shutter shroud off I decided visual inspection and quick parts swapping was prudent given the circumstances. All in all, it was a great pre-winter drill plus I fixed a problem that reared its head during good wrenching weather.

Only thing better would have been to have BBQ 🐔 🍗 on the grill & cold 🍻waiting after I finished. ;):p
Click to expand...
At least you shouldn't have to change out the shutter switch for another 36 years ;)
 
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