mewest mep803a issues. no power and bad valve rockers

[joshua1001]

So I got home another 803 unit. it had fluids drained in 2011. I added fresh oil, coolant and fuel and had to rob the aux fuel pump as the primary wasnt working. got it to crank up pretty easy and it runs really smooth but no power at all. the fuse and breaker in the panel area check out and the little 10 amp is good. I read about using a power source with 3 60w bulbs to help excite the generator to producing power again, anybody ever done this? I tried holding the switch in the start position for a few seconds but that did nothing.

Also it did have a tapping sound and I found that one cylinder has bad rockers, one was broken. the lifting rods have slight bends as well. the unit has good oil pressure and I checked another cylinder to be sure it was getting oil out of its lifting rods and it is. Im wondering if anybody has experienced why these units would stop putting oil to the lifting rods or why the valves woulld stick so bad they may not open. Thoughts, or is it even worth fooling with and should it be a parts unit? I do have to say these things run great on 3 cylinders..

 

[DieselAddict]

If holding the switch in doesn't give you power output you need to troubleshoot the exciter circuit and rotating assembly. First check if the field flash is getting to the leads going to the alternator. That will be on the excitation circuit of the alternator. If you have power leaving the control cabinet you need to then check the rotating diode assembly on the end of the rotor.

 

[DieselAddict]

Engine parts are available but are on the expensive side. You'll pay a couple hundred bucks for a gasket set alone.

You may want to pull the head at least and check the passages. That should be in the low hundred dollar range for gaskets.

 

[csheath]

So I got home another 803 unit. it had fluids drained in 2011. I added fresh oil, coolant and fuel and had to rob the aux fuel pump as the primary wasnt working. got it to crank up pretty easy and it runs really smooth but no power at all. the fuse and breaker in the panel area check out and the little 10 amp is good. I read about using a power source with 3 60w bulbs to help excite the generator to producing power again, anybody ever done this? I tried holding the switch in the start position for a few seconds but that did nothing.

Also it did have a tapping sound and I found that one cylinder has bad rockers, one was broken. the lifting rods have slight bends as well. the unit has good oil pressure and I checked another cylinder to be sure it was getting oil out of its lifting rods and it is. Im wondering if anybody has experienced why these units would stop putting oil to the lifting rods or why the valves woulld stick so bad they may not open. Thoughts, or is it even worth fooling with and should it be a parts unit? I do have to say these things run great on 3 cylinders..

It could have happened as soon as you started it since it was sitting dry for 5 years. I would pry down on the valves a little to see if they are still stuck and pour some oil on them. If the valves are not stuck it might be worth replacing the broken rockers and pushrods and start it back up to verify oil before tearing the head off.

 

[joshua1001]

I think i got a unit that was robbed of good parts and had the crap put back into place. before i took off that valve cover i found the broken rocker between the cover and exhaust manifold. the other rocker that was in its place had a hole worn in it where the pushrod meats it. I was wondering if it was due to lack of oil but i pulled the rockers and rods from a neighboring cylinder and installed on the cylinder with bad rods. I cranked it up for a minute and had oil so thats good. now ill get the new rockers and pushrods, get the engine running good and then turn my focus to the power generation.

 

[joshua1001]

I thought ID update the post. I got new valve covers on an e aution side to replace the one that had a hole from the pushrod cheap, they guy was a big help as he also had good pushrods and rockers along with a stop solenoid that was missing for a reasonable price. Got the engine side running great. When i pulled to top panel off on the panel side i discovered the leads from the stator were all disconnected. Connected them and got HZ but no volts, only 36 on l1 and l3. thought i had the issue of a bad AVR and stator and when I checked the quad windings from the wires going to the AVr I had infinate resistance. Also when I pulled apart the AVR looking to find bad diodes nothing was wrong. I happened to be in the storage box area looking around and found 4 wires with a black plug going nowhere. found it went up to a plug that would go into the area behind the panel with two other plugs. I reconnected everything and fired her up and had my hz and had proper volts and the convienence plug in. Closed the circuit but still nothing on the guage,,,,,,,,to put the multimeter on the back of the guage and got 240 volts and the adjusting works great so now it looks like i need a new working volt meter and a new aux fuel pump. volts on L1 and L3 were good to, be nice to get it all in shape and load test!