Confirm bad voltage regulator MEP016D

[ub3rn00ber]

I just got this thing running well, and I think I may have fried the regulator. I got it going and hooked up a small space heater to the 120 on the face, as I turned it up the generator changed RPM. I walked away to let it run for a bit. This was with the main 3 poll in the OFF position. When I came back the heater was off and the load meter was bouncing between 70-120. Now I have no power output, even when I try off the lugs.
Photos of all my settings.
Voltage running out of L1 2.7V

 

[Ray70]

You'll have to do a bit of testing to confirm, BUT the VR on those machines is definitely a known weak point.
I've swapped every 016X that has ever crossed my doorstep over to an SX-460 regulator.
You can find the Chinese ones for under $25, and they have always worked well for me.
Pretty simple conversion once you decipher the poorly labeled wiring, but there are more than enough past threads as well as immediate assistance here on SS to get you through it!

 

[ub3rn00ber]

You'll have to do a bit of testing to confirm, BUT the VR on those machines is definitely a known weak point.
I've swapped every 016X that has ever crossed my doorstep over to an SX-460 regulator.
You can find the Chinese ones for under $25, and they have always worked well for me.
Pretty simple conversion once you decipher the poorly labeled wiring, but there are more than enough past threads as well as immediate assistance here on SS to get you through it!

darn, I bought the shoebox style one (new surplus) for 159 on eBay. I did see the threads about swapping over to the SX-460. I may order one and have it on standby incase it fails during an emergency.
does going to the 460 avoid field flashing? Am I going to have to flash the surplus regulator? That’s a procedure I don’t understand, other than applying current on startup to re magnetize something.

 

[Ray70]

The SX-460 says you "may" have to wire in a manual field flash switch, but I've never needed to.
Perhaps if the gen has been sitting a LONG time you may find the need to flash it, but probably not.
If you go with the surplus original regulator I don't think you would need to manually flash either. I would assume there is a flashing circuit built into the circuitry already when you first start the engine.
The 460 also gives you the ability to maintain or eliminate ( your choice ) the voltage adjustment potentiometer. You set the voltage using a small pot on the VR and forget it from there forward, or you can attach the wires from the adjustment knob on the control panel if you want.

 

[ub3rn00ber]

that is very useful information, thank you very much!

I was looking at my ground, the frame and generator are grounded with a factory metal ribbon wire, and that’s grounded to the house ground. None of the output legs are grounded, L1 2 hot legs, L2 neutral. Feeding a reliant manual 10 circuit transfer switch.
Does the setup seem correct? An electrician did it not me.
I have a URF grounding system built into the foundation for the generator/shed and 2 grounding rods I’ll be hooking up once I get this 100%.

 

[Ray70]

Sounds correct, so you're running 4 conductors to the transfer switch, correct?? 2 Hots, 1 Neutral and 1 Ground....
You don't really want to ground the machine separately at the shed, you want to be running your neutral and ground as separate conductors back to your main panel.
From there the 2 get bonded together in your main panel and grounded through that same ground point as your service entrance.

 

[ub3rn00ber]

from what I understood and remember from 6 years ago when I had it done. The transfer switch has 2 bus bars 120v each not connected to each other (what’s the term for that? Not bonded?). It takes 240 and splits it into 2 120 bus bars. Since something about the phase and 240 of the generator he said just hook 2 hots to the 120 out put and keep the loads as balanced as possible between the 2 bus bars.

Correct, The generator has a pigtail with a 30a 4 prong connector 2 hots. Neutral, and ground.

 

[Ray70]

from what I understood and remember from 6 years ago when I had it done. The transfer switch has 2 bus bars 120v each not connected to each other (what’s the term for that? Not bonded?). It takes 240 and splits it into 2 120 bus bars. Since something about the phase and 240 of the generator he said just hook 2 hots to the 120 out put and keep the loads as balanced as possible between the 2 bus bars.

Correct, The generator has a pigtail with a 30a 4 prong connector 2 hots. Neutral, and ground.

That's fairly accurate, probably just a little bit of incorrect terminology but close enough.... The transfer switch isn't really taking 240V and splitting it into 2 120V buss bar feeds. Your Generator is producing 240V ( through 2 hot lines of 120V that are 180* out of phase ) those two 120V hot wires feed your transfer switch, each sending 120V to one of the 2 not bonded buss bars. If you put a 120V breaker in the transfer panel if will attach to 1 of those buss bars, sending 120V out to that circuit.
If you put in a 240V ( double pole ) breaker, that breaker will attach to both of the 2 out of phase 120V buss bars ( because of the ziz-zag staggered shape of the buss bars that each feed every other position ) , sending 240V through 2 hot wires to that circuit ( if you need to feed a well pump, oven, dryer or other 240V device.
All in all it sounds correct, and balancing the 2 legs is definitely a good idea.
Does the Reliant switch you have use individual ammeters to monitor the 2 legs? if so, that makes load balancing easy.
If not, keep in mind that every other breaker runs off the same hot leg.

 

[ub3rn00ber]

Yep it has individual ammeters. Without those It would be way more time consuming!
All we run during power outages is 2 fridges, 1 freezer, LED lights, and the heater blower motor (gas heater). As long as I don’t flip all the switches at once it’s pretty good.

 

[Guyfang]

When you put the new /old VR in, make sure you hook up the wires correctly. There is a plate on the VR, that tells you were and what to hook up, and where the internal jumpers are hooked up on the TB, Terminal board. This is a Universal VR, so not all the gen sets it fits are hooked up the same.

 

[2Pbfeet]

@Guyfang Thanks! I find it interesting to see the schematic of the design of the controller.

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Guyfang]

Its all in the TM. Back in the day, The VR was repaired, not replaced, at DS level.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Its all in the TM. Back in the day, The VR was repaired, not replaced, at DS level.

Back in the day, we didn't live in a throw away world... AND we had people with technical ability. Crazy, right?

 

[Guyfang]

I think we still have people with technical ability. There are several MOS's (Military Occupational Specialty) that I know of, that could readily do this repair. But one of the big changes made by MEP, (Mobile Electric Power), many years ago, was to reduce training time for some MOS's. And to combine some MOS's, as they were very similar. Back in the 70's, my was MOS, 52B, Power Generation Equipment Operator/Mechanic. Start, stop, basic maintenance of all power generation equipment.

The next step up, and 3-4 months more schooling was 52D, Power Generation Equipment Repairer. These were the people who worked in the next level of repair. Direct Support maintenance. The could be assigned to line units, and were often done so. They became responsible for running an entire Power Generation section, normally for units that had larger gen sets. Hospitals, Missile units, Radar units and such things. But most 52D's went to DS maintenance units, and did higher levels of work. This was the guys who did electrical repairs, of almost any part in the gen sets. They also engine replacement, and engine repair, up to major engine rebuild.

MEP decided that there were items, that took to long to repair, that the number of repair parts needed to be stocked would be drastically reduced by not performing these repairs. More Mission Readiness Time, less Maintenance and Supply time. And at the end of the day, this was a wise decision. The overhaul of a diesel engine would take at least a week, if all went well, and that simply never happened. Even if the Technical Supply had the rebuild kit, should you find some other part that needed to be replaced, the supply time stretched out even longer. And a unit needed more tools and test equipment. I had two young studs who could pull out a 30 KW engine in three hours, and have the new engine back in in 4-5 hours, and start a test run. As a commander, what would you want?