MEP 802A Fix-up Thread

[Guyfang]

I used simple green. I am sure there are other products, but the Army bought it by the truck loads, and it works very well.

 

[CallMeColt]

I used simple green. I am sure there are other products, but the Army bought it by the truck loads, and it works very well.

Cool, I have plenty of this stuff! We buy it by the gallon from Sams Club. Going to rinse it all off today.

Also, thanks for the files. Lots of real good information in there. Going to dig into it & see if there are some detailed drawings of the injection pumps.

 

[jamawieb]

Simple Green or Purple Power is all I use.

 

[Daybreak]

Simple Green or Purple Power is all I use.

Howdy,
Good stuff, cleans it all up good too.

 

[CallMeColt]

So over the past few days, I got everything back together & washed it a few times. A good chunk of the oil is cleaned off. Figure it will burn off the rest when I get it running hot again.

Ran it for about 5 minuets. Noticed a fuel leak again but from the other injection pump now & it's much worse.

I'm a bit baffled as to where the fuel is coming from. It's definitely fuel & not oil.

Going to go back out & look at everything again but this time I made sure that EVERYTHING was attached & tight. Has to be something dumb as it usually is.

Will post some pictures later.

UPDATE: Pictures!

 

[CallMeColt]

Found what I think was the leak both times.

I was using the pinch type hose clamps to hold the hose on the nipple of the injection pumps. When clamping the injections pumps down, it was also pressing the tabs of the hose clamps.

Because the fuel was then coming out of the line right where it met up with the body of the injection pump, it made it seem as if the fuel was coming from the injection pump body.

Ran it for 45 minuets with the doors open at full load to burn off the oil residue still on the engine.

My battery hold downs work okay, but with all the oil in there, the batteries are still moving around a lot. Going to go ahead & get some proper hold down boxes for them.

Hopefully the engine area around the injectors will dry out good. Going to leave a fan running to try & help. Not sure if it will. Once it is bone dry, I can run again to be sure there's no leak.

UPDATE: Below is a picture of the pinch type clamp. When they were straight up & down, you can see how they would be pinched by the clamp for the injectors. Now with them sideways, it doesn't.

 

[jamawieb]

May want to take carburetor cleaner and spray it where the diesel is because diesel wont dry out. It will stay wet looking for a long time.

 

[Farmitall]

May want to take carburetor cleaner and spray it where the diesel is because diesel wont dry out. It will stay wet looking for a long time.

And be sure it is the "NON CHLORINATED" type. It should say non chlorinated on the can.

 

[CallMeColt]

May want to take carburetor cleaner and spray it where the diesel is because diesel wont dry out. It will stay wet looking for a long time.

And be sure it is the "NON CHLORINATED" type. It should say non chlorinated on the can.

I only use the non-chlorinated type. I wasn't sure if it would cause any issues but I don't see why it would. I'll spray it good & let it dry out for a day or so before using it.

 

[CallMeColt]

Well, got about 28 hours on it this past weekend. No real big problems.

Battery hold downs I made just weren't doing the job as I liked so I went ahead & did order the Ballistic Fabrication ones. Installed them yesterday after painting them.



Way better than what I made. Super solid. Just drilled 4 holes in the bottom of the housing to match the pattern on the battery holders. Tightened the nut & bold to the battery holder first, then a second nut under the generator so that the holder has some standoff from the bottom in case of fluids in the bottom of enclosure.

Made some more minor adjustments to the doors & fuel cap to keep the rattles down. Some of the hinges on the doors are very worn making a lot of noise. Might replace them one day.

Will be using it again this weekend. Happy it all seems to be running well as this is the time of the year I really need it at my off grid place to stay cool. South Texas is a little hot in the summer.

To help keep it from wet stacking, I run the electric heater I installed for the winter on low & the two A/C units I have still keep up but it put's about an 90% load. You can see a bit of white smoke & it burns off in 10-15 minuets.

The planning & hard work is all coming together. Thanks again everyone for the help! My next trip out I may take a video of what I have it running out there & will share. I did make a little video showing how to use auxiliary fuel hookups... might seem dumb to everyone here but I wasn't able to find a lot of information on exactly how it works before I took the plunge into the surplus generator world.

 

[Zed254]

Have you noticed any siphoning of the fuel when operating on your truck tank? I'm wondering if the higher elevation of the truck tank will cause a fuel spill in the generator when it is not running, especially after a long run on Aux. fuel. My Aux. tanks are all on the ground, but I've been thinking of getting a truck mounted auxiliary tank similar to your set up.

 

[CallMeColt]

Have you noticed any siphoning of the fuel when operating on your truck tank? I'm wondering if the higher elevation of the truck tank will cause a fuel spill in the generator when it is not running, especially after a long run on Aux. fuel. My Aux. tanks are all on the ground, but I've been thinking of getting a truck mounted auxiliary tank similar to your set up.

Never had an issue like that. I believe that concern was thought of & the design of the pump will not allow it.

 

[CallMeColt]

Spent 4 days this past weekend out at my off grid place. Generator is up to about 208 hours now. Ran fine. Slight fuel leak came back. Still a bit of a coolant leak from the overflow bottle. Both I'm not terrible worried about for a machine that is 25 years old, though, I would like to fix them.

I think I'm getting the slight fuel leak due to the pinch type hose clamps at the injection pump nipple. I true hose clamp may hold a bit tighter & stop it. Dawned on me that the fuel hose I used is SAE & the OEM hose is metric so it fits slightly more loose.

I used a cheap cap from O'riley's on the coolant overflow & think the gasket just sucks on it. Tried to add my own but then not to many threads grab.

I've been trying to get rid of some of the rattling on the machine. Found that some of the door hinges are very worn. May try to find those to replace. Removed the screen part on the fuel fill as that was rattling like crazy. Was thinking of adding a bunch of foam around the inside as a noise insulator. When running, I have been removing the little flapper for the exhaust as that makes a lot of rattling. Was thinking of getting a rain guard flapper from Tractor Supply & just leaving the existing flapper off all together. Noticed while driving that the flapper flips up too. Should be able to prevent both of those things from happening.

Would love to find a proper trailer for it.

 

[69birdman]

Rattles & jingles
Oh yeah, x 2 for the 802, I hear.
The door catches on the 80Xs all rattle, take them off and have 180° door access. Loose door latches can be tightened up with a small slice of 5/8 automotive heater hose. Wich works well for the D-ring tie downs as well, 2-3 inches of hose ,split one side & put on D-rings.
You don't need a 1-1/2 ton trailer to haul an 802. I have my 803 on a harbour freight trailer, second hand cheap, 1720lb . Found a 40x48 for my 831 recently for $25.

 

[CallMeColt]

Rattles & jingles
Oh yeah, x 2 for the 802, I hear.
The door catches on the 80Xs all rattle, take them off and have 180° door access. Loose door latches can be tightened up with a small slice of 5/8 automotive heater hose. Wich works well for the D-ring tie downs as well, 2-3 inches of hose ,split one side & put on D-rings.
You don't need a 1-1/2 ton trailer to haul an 802. I have my 803 on a harbour freight trailer, second hand cheap, 1720lb . Found a 40x48 for my 831 recently for $25.

I already removed the door catches & the tie down rings. Those were very noisy. The latches on mine are very tight so that wasn't an issue.

I want the proper trailer due to the tire size & axle. I tow mine 450 miles round trip each time I use it. Those Harbor Freight trailers will not last with the distance, let alone the off road abuse. The trailer I have no isn't the best, but the highway axle is good. I could put some Jeep wheels on it so I can have bigger tires. May try flipping the axle as well. That will give me 4 inches or so of lift.

 

[Guyfang]

Got to be some trailers out there for you. I have read over and over in the forum, someone buys a gen set with trailer, and the first thing they do is deep six the trailer. Put an add in the forum.

I rather liked the trailers that the gov had for these sets. I could also see getting one and making some changes to them. Little things. Or something I always wanted to do with the old style trailers was add a large fuel tank under the bed. The trailers set up much higher, had much more road clearance. A large tank would fit. A lot of the changes I wanted to make, would not intrest you all, as you don't change locations every 4-6 hours. But you could, I am sure come up with something good, if you just sat and looked at it.

 

[CallMeColt]

Got to be some trailers out there for you. I have read over and over in the forum, someone buys a gen set with trailer, and the first thing they do is deep six the trailer. Put an add in the forum.

I rather liked the trailers that the gov had for these sets. I could also see getting one and making some changes to them. Little things. Or something I always wanted to do with the old style trailers was add a large fuel tank under the bed. The trailers set up much higher, had much more road clearance. A large tank would fit. A lot of the changes I wanted to make, would not intrest you all, as you don't change locations every 4-6 hours. But you could, I am sure come up with something good, if you just sat and looked at it.

I saw a lot of potential for modifications as well. I want the trailer to ultimately be a hook up & go with everything needed plus some on it. For my own uses at the off grid place, or when a disaster hits & neighbors need help.

My truck has 35in tires, so the trailer would ride pretty level. Easy enough to get smaller tires as well. I use a pintle on my truck too.

Getting a cheap light setup & gutting the 24v stuff would be an easy job.

Thought about adding a few tool boxes hanging under the trailer for cables & all that kind of stuff.

A hanging fuel tank, like those on a tractor trailer, would go great as well.

A nice panel with all the different plugs you could want with breakers would be cool.

I really kick myself in the butt for listening to my wife & not getting the second 802A on a trailer for $500 last year...

 

[CallMeColt]

Facebook was monitoring me...

Two of the proper generator trailers popped up on Marketplace. One is only two towns over. Person is asking $1,500 but I have them talked down to $600.

Pictures look like it's in good shape.

 

[Light in the Dark]

At 600, you should jump on it.

 

[CallMeColt]

So, this happened yesterday after work... $550. The only thing I could find wrong is the handle for the tongue jack is missing & the original pin for the rear kickstand.



Trying to figure out if I want to convert the lights & harness on it or just take them off to put a regular set of LED trailer lights on it.

Also trying to figure out what to do for tires. I want to put smaller ones on to make it a bit more level riding. Also figured I could sell the wheels to recoup some money.