just picked up a MEP 002A

[sewerzuk]

Just picked up a MEP 002A last week from a local Wildlife refuge; they gave it to me as part of a scrap lot.
Lucky break...it only had 900 HRS on it, was stored indoors, and looked great. The only problem was a short in the engine control system, and a mechanic had removed the fuel solenoid in order to start the engine (so it would start but couldn't be shut off via the panel).
I replaced the fuel solenoid and found the source of the short; a small piece of the fan had broken off and landed on the fuse for the voltage regulator. A piece of wire and some solder, and it's back to 100%. I did have to buy 2 new batteries for it as well, and I have a couple of glow plugs on order for it.

Couple of questions:

Does anybody have a link to the TM for this unit? I did some searching on openPDF but I only found general service manuals for the trailer and genset combo, nothing specific for the MEP 002A.

If I was to put it up for sale locally, what do you guys think it would be worth?

 

[mdlbldrmatt135]

Look in the TM section of the forum.

 

[Isaac-1]

As is, luck of the dice MEP-002a's have been selling in the $1,000+ range off GL most of the time lately (some a bit under, most around here at least seem to go a bit over), known good running unit I would say $2,000 - 2,500 in the current market. I would estimate the average selling price for a quality generator like the MEP-002a, etc. has increased by about 30-50% in the last 2 years, maybe its the weather, maybe people are more paranoid, maybe even advertiser driven as I know I hear a lot more generac, etc. ads on the radio and tv than a few years ago. Being in the north you are in the off season for generators, if you were down here in hurricane country it would be coming up on prime season for selling a generator in the next few months.

Ike

 

[brianrbull]

Good looking 5kw. The control panel is still shiny black, not faded like a lot of them that I have seen. I do have a question though what is that grey hose attached to the cover over the output connections?

 

[sewerzuk]

Good looking 5kw. The control panel is still shiny black, not faded like a lot of them that I have seen. I do have a question though what is that grey hose attached to the cover over the output connections?

It's flexible metal conduit. The NWR I got it from had it hardwired to a building.
I currently have some SO cable running through there to supply my shop...going to hook it up to my mill today to test the 3 phase windings.

I have another queston; the frequency meter works intermittently on this machine; sometimes it reads perfect, sometimes it stays pegged low. I took V & F readings on the transducer input while the meter was working and while it was pegged low at various RPM's; the readings and waveforms match, so the transducer is obviously bad. I called the company that made it (TRC in Clearwater, FL). They will sell me one for about $400...way too rich for my blood. I was going to replace the entire meter with a different one and eliminate the transducer altogether, but if any of you have a source for a used transducer, or even a V-F converter that will work, I would prefer to keep the meter panel all original...

 

[Isaac-1]

If you want to go cheap, Hardy Diesel is selling a little digital Volts / Hz meter with a standard outlet plug on the end on ebay for $20, I bought one last week. There is a small button on the front to switch between HZ and volts, upon power up it defaults to HZ. Ebay search on "frequency volt meter"

Ike

p.s. upon dissecting it the rating on the panel is 50-300V so you could rewire through your selector switch to show L-L or L-N

 

[sewerzuk]

I actually already bought a digital freq meter off of ebay last week (although not the one you are talking about). But, I hate to cut an opening in an otherwise virgin panel if I can get the correct parts for under $100 or so....

 

[Carl_in_NH]

You might find the transducer for $100 from a private sale - but not from one of the standard MEP parts sources you'll find on the Internet; they all charge fairly good money for these items.

I wouldn't cut the panel, either - I'd look around for a small enough meter to fit within the standard meter hole and machine a plate to mount it in the original hole.

Good luck in your quest.