meo-003 electrical questions

[coyote62ny]

just bought my first mep-003 runs great puts out power but i think i might have trouble with the battery charging system i have looked through the manuals it has a lot about not charging but i think mine might be charging to much i installed new batteries the charge gauge starts out in the green after the engine starts but goes to the red above the green after about ten minutes run time i checked the voltage at the batteries it was at 30 volts could this be because the new ones are not fully charged ? i bought the generator running when i went to look at it we ran it for about 45minutes the person i got from had his batteries in the set the meter was in the green the whole time we had it running . my other question is the hertz gauge pegs below 55 hertz i read one post on here where some one had the wires on the gauge switched so i switched them and then it pegs above 65 hertz but the hand held volt meter i had hooked into the 120 outlets said 60 hertz so i put the wires back . i checked the wires before switching and they were hooked up right positive on the gauge to positive on the transducer all ac voltages check out good . this generator is in great shape no dents all the paint intact 965 hours on the meter with rusty screws my military collection started with the 1a08 and 2a016 engines well a man just cant stop collecting this stuff i have plans on using the mep-003 to run my house in a power outage which we get a lot of in new york in the winter any help would be greatly appreciated .

 

[jbk]

at 30 volts your charging system is working either the batts. wernt charged or are bad. your meter trouble could be the transducer or gauge. i had one peg the meter to the right, somone had installed the wrong transducer they used one for the 50/60 hertz units. i changed it and it was fine. i also had one that the gauge gradually crept up to 64 it had a bad meter vibration i think had done it in changed the gauge and its fine.

 

[coyote62ny]

thanks a lot jbk i will have the batts checked and if they are not bad i will charge them with the charger as for the hertz gauge it only pegs the meter to the right when i switched the wires which was pos wire on neg neg wire on pos at least that is what the ohm meter was readingwith the wires hooked up right pos to pos neg to neg it pegs to the left but my ohm meter set on hertz showed 60 hertz on the money and steady would saturn surplus or delks have a transducer i thought the battery charging regulator was bad is that available any where thanks again

 

[Speddmon]

Your charging system is over charging. That's why you are going into the red on your battery gauge. Your DC voltage regulator should be only putting out about 28 volts or so, regardless of the state of discharge of the batteries. Anything over that and you are overcharging the batteries. Probably the regulator is going bad, but more testing would be required to know for sure.

As to the frequency meter, check the connections on your transducer (mounted on the back wall of the control cubicle). A loose or corroded connection will cause the meter to read all over the place.

 

[coyote62ny]

thanks speddmon where is the regulator located on the generator and how much do they cost to replace is that the one you can repair icleaned and checked the connections on the trans ducer all are clean and tight as well as the gauge can you get the regulator and would saturn or delks have it what else should i test thanks

 

[jbk]

the reg. is located behind the sheet metal air intake in front. i have a 002 now that the unit would also go to 30 volts also its done it maybee 3 times when it does i can remove the dc fuse above the oil filter and put it right back in while it is running and everything will be fine. i thought it might be the reg. also but it hasnt done it in a while. you cant repair the reg. their maybee somone on the board that would sell a used one. delks also comes to mind. i have a spare for mine. its performed fine for the last 15 to 20 hrs.

 

[m38inmaine]

New regulator.....

Voltage Regulator/Rectifier (Battery Charging) For Onan MEP-002A / MEP-003A 5KW and 10KW Generator Sets, FVR4006

 

[coyote62ny]

thanks guys worked on the generator more today found the regulator cleaned all connections new battery terminals started it was at 26.5 volts 15 min later it was at 32.5 so i shut it down when i put on the new battery terminals i noticed a arc when i put the neg cable back on does this mean the regulator is bad or is it some other problem as i am not to good at electronics thanks

 

[coyote62ny]

also checked the batteries with a load tester they are good even cleaned the terminals on the starter just to be safe thanks

 

[Speddmon]

If you got a spark when you put the terminals back on, that means that something is going bad. It's usually the voltage regulator or the capacitor located just beside the regulator. The easiest way to check is to remove the one leg of the capacitor and then try to attach the battery cables again. The capacitor mounts on the terminal strip just below the voltage regulator. One side of the capacitor is attached to the strip and the other side if attached to the mounting screw of the strip effectively grounding the capacitor.

Just remove the grounded side of the capacitor and leave it hanging free not touching anything. Then try to hook up the battery cables again, and see if you still get the spark. If you do get it then your VR is definitely bad, probably just a bad diode in it. If the sparking goes away, then that capacitor is bad.

Either way, the VR sounds fishy since your charging voltage is going high.

 

[coyote62ny]

thanks speddmon i will check the capacitor today if i have time i got a vr coming from delks surplus used but he said it had been tested and was good will post after checking the capacitor

 

[coyote62ny]

thanks speddmon i did lift the ground on the capacitor and when reconnected the battery no sparks ordered a used vr from delks yesterday today i ordered a new capacitor they do not give those parts away ouch 126.00 for the vr and 35.00 for the capacitor but when all said and done i will have a generator that will last the rest of my life and run my welder and house is the vr something that goes bad often if so maybe i will get a spare i have a friend that thinks he can get the old vr apart and fix it if he does get it fixed i will post the parts he replaced and how he got it apart thanks again for everybodys help will let you know if this fixes the problem

 

[Speddmon]

That should fix you up. The capacitor you could have gotten just about anywhere that sells electronic components since it's nothing special. I think Delks got you on that one, but at least you'll have what you need.

The VR's seem to be pretty hardy pieces of equipment if you ask me, just DO NOT run your generator without the batteries hooked up. That's probably how the VR got toasted to begin with. If you want to slave start it, keep the slave cables hooked up as long as it's running too. That way you don't screw up the VR.

I wish you luck on having your friend get the old VR apart and repair it. Once he get's it apart, the repair should be easy, but that epoxy is really a huge pain to get off of the components.