• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

My (new to me) MEP-803a won't crank from start switch.

Farmitall

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
544
276
63
Location
Eubank, KY
A new "twist" in the inspection:image.jpg. Why would any half way competent person do such a thing to a hose? I unplugged the aux fuel pump to get the wire out of the way for the fuel line photo.

Anyway, I took a garden hose to the set and rinsed it out thoroughly then blew everything dry with compressed air and unplugged the low fuel level float and the set started and ran perfectly with no fault light, battle short off.

Now to pull the low level float and see why there is a wire zip tie on it and test it per the TM.
 
Last edited:

Farmitall

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
544
276
63
Location
Eubank, KY
Wired up a couple of dryer elements in series this morning and connected a 240v 10 inch fan to them and did a load test for about 2.5 hours. @ 80% load capacity on the meter.
The set was running steady at 210 degrees +- but the oil pressure fell to about 32psi after an hour or so according to the gauge. I plan to run the set a little more then drop the oil and filter and replace with Rotella 15w 40.
Also going to confirm the psi reading with a manual gauge to see the actual pressure.

The set handled the application of the load great!, hardly a sag in RPMs, no smoke and the stack gasses were hot enough that I couldn't hold my hand any closer than 20 inches from the top without being burned.

So far very pleased with this purchase.
 

Leonardo82nd

Active member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
118
70
28
Location
Edinburg Texas
Try this... the instant it starts, flip the battle short on. See if it still runs, and if the light illuminates.
@Light in the Dark my 803a is only starting when i did the above suggestion You posted

“Try this... the instant it starts, flip the battle short on. See if it still runs, and if the light illuminates. “

what do I need to do , to correct this - or what exactly is going on ? Thank You
 

Light in the Dark

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
3,861
6,075
113
Location
MA
If the condition persists, you could have a faulty oil pressure switch. The battle short trick overrides all of the 'safety' circuits. So if you have a LOP fault, its either because you DO have low oil pressure (which being a mechanical oil pump... its almost always the switch versus a pump failure... though it can occur)... or the system just thinks you do.

Is this a new to you machine or not? Have you confirmed the leads are terminated properly on the switch and that nothing is loose? Can make a jumper cable to hook the two wires together (double male terminal short cable) and take the switch out of the equation for testing purposes.

Edit: I know Ray70 has mentioned that he has seen some internal oil pressure check valves get hung up causing the same issue too.
 

Leonardo82nd

Active member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
118
70
28
Location
Edinburg Texas
If the condition persists, you could have a faulty oil pressure switch. The battle short trick overrides all of the 'safety' circuits. So if you have a LOP fault, its either because you DO have low oil pressure (which being a mechanical oil pump... its almost always the switch versus a pump failure... though it can occur)... or the system just thinks you do.

Is this a new to you machine or not? Have you confirmed the leads are terminated properly on the switch and that nothing is loose? Can make a jumper cable to hook the two wires together (double male terminal short cable) and take the switch out of the equation for testing purposes.

Edit: I know Ray70 has mentioned that he has seen some internal oil pressure check valves get hung up causing the same issue too.
this is a new to me ,
If the condition persists, you could have a faulty oil pressure switch. The battle short trick overrides all of the 'safety' circuits. So if you have a LOP fault, its either because you DO have low oil pressure (which being a mechanical oil pump... its almost always the switch versus a pump failure... though it can occur)... or the system just thinks you do.

Is this a new to you machine or not? Have you confirmed the leads are terminated properly on the switch and that nothing is loose? Can make a jumper cable to hook the two wires together (double male terminal short cable) and take the switch out of the equation for testing purposes.

Edit: I know Ray70 has mentioned that he has seen some internal oil pressure check valves get hung up causing the same issue too.
It’s a new to me - ok I finally found some Shell Rotella here in south Texas , massive shortage . Not sure if that’s everywhere .
I topped it off , cranked right up - no problem . I had never noticed they were so finicky. it did not require much . Thanks again , for the help .
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks