MEP-831A no power

[Icesythe7]

Found this little guy

on marketplace and went and picked it up, he said it made power, got it home checked fluids and fired it up and sure enough it made power fine so tested a few fans and what not, rolled it outside to use air compressor to blow all the pine needles out of it and after done rolled it back in the garage and no power...checked the fuse and it was poped (the 32v 20a one behind the panel) replaced said fuse and still no power (led on k12 is off), what should I be checking next?

P.S. no power to convenience outlets either seems completely dead , also I'm assuming this is an adjustment issue but when starting via electric start I have to manually pull the arm off the magnet so it allows fuel to flow, while reading the TM I didnt see a mention (could have missed it) for what setting the black knob with top saying stop and bottom saying start should be in...currently it is all the way to the start position.

P.S.S. Just ran a couple more tests based on what I see in the other threads, I have 185~ volts AC in every combination of pairs on ABC on governor controller (ie A/C, A/B, B/C) I have nothing on top of inverter on either L1 or L2 (L1 N 0v, L2 N 0v, L1 L2 0v), I can hear the fan inside the inverter come on with the switch however none of the 2 auxiliary case fans come on (not sure when/if they are supposed to.

 

[kloppk]

The fuse is on the input of the sets battery charger. If that popped the battery charger is probably toast. The set can run OK without it on the batteries until they wear down.
Is the LED inside of K15 ON when running? If on it indicates the inverter is making power, at least L1 is, it powers K15's coil and the LED inside it.

The outlet is controlled by the GFCI. If it trips or the tiny CB on the side of it trips you'll get no power at the outlet.

Knob should always be in the START position.

The arm should lift off the magnet as soon as you put S1 in Prime/Run. If it doesn't the SLC100 Governor Controller behind the gauge panel is probably shot. They fail VERY frequently.

185 volts at terminals A,B,C should be enough for the inverter to make power. At no load the voltage should be about 178 volts AC..
No power at the terminals on top isn't a good sign.

Weird it made power until you blew the pine needles out....

The two fans are controlled by two different thermostatic switches. When the temp inside the generators housing exceeds 85 F the first fan kicks on and the second fan at 100 F

 

[Icesythe7]

The fuse is on the input of the sets battery charger. If that popped the battery charger is probably toast. The set can run OK without it on the batteries until they wear down.
Is the LED inside of K15 ON when running? If on it indicates the inverter is making power, at least L1 is, it powers K15's coil and the LED inside it.

The outlet is controlled by the GFCI. If it trips or the tiny CB on the side of it trips you'll get no power at the outlet.

Knob should always be in the START position.

The arm should lift off the magnet as soon as you put S1 in Prime/Run. If it doesn't the SLC100 Governor Controller behind the gauge panel is probably shot. They fail VERY frequently.

185 volts at terminals A,B,C should be enough for the inverter to make power. At no load the voltage should be about 178 volts AC..
No power at the terminals on top isn't a good sign.

Weird it made power until you blew the pine needles out....

The two fans are controlled by two different thermostatic switches. When the temp inside the generators housing exceeds 85 F the first fan kicks on and the second fan at 100 F

No leds are on when running, and after moving knob to start position it seems to idle very high, I made a video showing what it is doing (mainly nothing)

This thing was buried in a mixture of pine needles and diesel fuel, the main fuel line was rock hard and leaking for what seems like a good while, I splashed some degreaser in the bottom and wiped it out after I blew out what I could so hopefully that didn't get on something it shouldn't have, by your above comments I bet I'll be removing an inverter too look inside tomorrow lol

 

[kloppk]

Set is running Wide Open Throttle. It shouldn't be. The SLC100 Governor Controller (GC) is shot. One of the classic symptoms of a factory GC failure. Also not lifting off the magnet is a sign too.

No LED ON in K15 indicates the inverter isn't making power. May be due to running WOT at startup.

The factory wire and lead seal are missing from the mechanical governors top adjusting screw. It's a sure sign someone who didn't know what they were doing were trying to "fix" a governor issue. The wire and lead seal should never normally need to be removed.

Hopefully you didn't start the set with the battery cables mixed up. That will smoke the battery charger.

 

[Icesythe7]

Set is running Wide Open Throttle. It shouldn't be. The SLC100 Governor Controller (GC) is shot. One of the classic symptoms of a factory GC failure. Also not lifting off the magnet is a sign too.

No LED ON in K15 indicates the inverter isn't making power. May be due to running WOT at startup.

The factory wire and lead seal are missing from the mechanical governors top adjusting screw. It's a sure sign someone who didn't know what they were doing were trying to "fix" a governor issue. The wire and lead seal should never normally need to be removed.

Hopefully you didn't start the set with the battery cables mixed up. That will smoke the battery charger.

Looks like I'll be buying a kloppk controller lol, but not until it makes power first, what is "WOT at startup", I haven't messed with the governor controller at all so must have been in its past life sadly, the terminals for the battery are on "backwards" currently colorwise but are not actually backwards polarity wise. Is the inverter pretty easy to grab out of there or is it one of those deals where i have to take apart most of the machine?

P.S. Tested output at battery (just jumping off my 803a) 25.3v idle and 26.5v with 831a running so seems like it is atleast doing something

 

[kloppk]

WOT = Wide Open Throttle

Inverter removal isn't too bad.
6 exterior bolts
2 left side bracket bolts
Disconnect all wires and plugs
Unbolt the two cable clamps from the inverter
Remove "L" bracket under inverter
Unbolt contactor and move to bottom
Wriggle the inverter out

 

[Icesythe7]

WOT = Wide Open Throttle

Inverter removal isn't too bad.
6 exterior bolts
2 left side bracket bolts
Disconnect all wires and plugs
Unbolt the two cable clamps from the inverter
Remove "L" bracket under inverter
Unbolt contactor and move to bottom
Wriggle the inverter out

I'll go do that and see what she looks like

 

[Icesythe7]

looks like that bottom port exploded...also this thing is full of those white little eggs like in the bottom left

 

[Digger556]

wow.

 

[Icesythe7]

wow.

I'm gonna guess in blowing out all the dirt I must moved 1 or more of the 1000's of pieces of debres that fell out of this thing and shorted something and the next time it got power it went

 

[kloppk]

My guess is the dual 3 phase rectifier assembly attached to the white connector failed sending the black soot up discoloring the main control board.

 

[Icesythe7]

My guess is the dual 3 phase rectifier assembly attached to the white connector failed sending the black soot up discoloring the main control board.

we are gonna test that theory because im gonna solder up a makeshift connector and tryit...not much too lose at this point lol, it completely burned out the 2 middle pins of that 6 pin molex...that seemingly is the only visible damage


gonna order a new 1 dollar connector and rebuild the 2 traces it killed and see if it explodes again...

 

[kloppk]

Yikes! Usually 1 or more of the 4 fuse(s) by the Molex connector blow first.

 

[Icesythe7]

Yikes! Usually 1 or more of the 4 fuse(s) by the Molex connector blow first.

Already checked fuses F1-F4 all test good
Small price to pay to at least see

 

[fb40dash5]

wow.

Yeah. Note to self: Don't do that. That looks expensive.

 

[kloppk]

As I recall, the two middle pins are not fused and the 4 outer ones are.

 

[2Pbfeet]

I have to say that the first upper photo in post #8, the upper left corner looks like that corner of the board sat in salt water for a bit, and those two capacitors at the top look a little "droopy" like they might have melted a bit. Definitely armchair quarterbacking. I have brought back a few boards from regulator meltdowns, but this is pretty impressive.

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Icesythe7]

Well I'm not gonna sit here and lie to anyone it looks like crap but we have continuity everywhere again...kinda don't wanna plug it in and try it yet to not be let down after this much work this early lol
All but 1 of the via's were completely gone so took some wire and wrapped it around leg and ran to trace, still looks like crap lol

 

[Icesythe7]

Well it turned out as expected

On an unrelated note if anyone happens to have an 831A inverter for sell...lmk

 

[kloppk]

That was quite a lights show!
I expected that to happen.
Good inverters are hard to find. I got two off ebay. Both duds. Shady seller.
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