My second MEP-831A

[AfghanVeteran2010]

I bought another MEP-831A with 590 hours on it. Should be around a week till it arrives. The seller is selling how it was revived from Gov action, drained of oil and fuel. It was made in 2002 and Reset in 2006 at 2.2hrs, not sure at this point what Tier Reset it was. Seller says engines has good compression.

Plan of action is to look over the set for any deficiencies that would prevent operation. I will disconnect the dead battery. After that ill take a look at oil filter and replace or clean it depending on its condition and a fresh o-ring. I will take a good look at the air filer housing and replace the air filter. Ill also shine a light into fuel tank and see if I can see any thing crazy going on in there. If everything goes well ill add oil and fuel and see if it fires up.

Hopefully I'm covering all my bases, if not please let me know. Thanks

 

[strycnine]

You may already do this, but I'd turn engine over by hand.

I want one of those units!

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

Picked it up at Fastenal today. This unit was most definitely some where sandy, bottom of control panel has a good coating of sand. Rest of generator engine enclosure was similarly coated in areas, a wet-vac will take care of that. The outside of unit is pretty good no major dings or bent items. The air filer looks new it the wet type, not sure on difference between the two types. Is the wet one coated at factory with oil? Very clean looking intake after the filter seal. I could only find one item missing the contractor Plexiglas terminal cover. Everything was plugged in as it should. Won't be able to get back around to it till Monday, that will be a more through examination with the TM. After I find any additional deficiency and I will record it to paper, then I would proceed accordingly to what I find. As long as its not a deadline item/issue ill fill with oil and see what happens. Also the battery is dead at 2.2 volts, might try to restore it at some point.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

After I filled it with oil I was checking for compression, when I pull the cord it makes a odd noise. Any ideas ?

https://youtu.be/cOmbxoBRYew

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

Never mind its the valves or a seal making that noise, when I hold the decompression lever the noise is absent. Going to re-torque the head nuts since its at 590hrs and check the valve lashing. I can pull the cord with out too much resistance, I have a leak some where. So it could be the injector gasket, head gasket, piston rings, or the valves. Going to see what effect the lashing and the retightening the head has.

 

[strycnine]

Does that have the L70 Yanmar in it? I have two MEP-016D's with the L70 and I've never had that issue.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

yep I think is the only difference is the output shaft L70AE-DEGFRYC has a tapper shaft for the genhead

 

[strycnine]

I'd be interested in finding out what that noise is. Please give a report back

 

[NATCAD]

hope this generator works out better for you afgan.
I got a 2nd one in, and 2nd pull the cord broke. Ah well, it was cold - about 32 F
It does not have a cold start oil fill hole.

I think you might be able to get that battery back. Mine was at 8 volts and the noco 7200 wouldn't charge it. I attached a 24v battery via jumper cables and started the motor with starter.
After warming up, I then took jumper cables off and unit was charging battery at 28-30v.

There just might not be much capacity in the battery to cold start. Might get you enough to run the air warmer and pull start easy though.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

The head nuts that are under valve cover were loss and missing their washers tighten to spec. No odd noise and GOOD compression. So I started it up, low oil pressure light stayed on after two resets. Checked oil level that is good. Went down the troubleshooting list the gen side wire harness is good. Its probably the filter because I stated to fill the unit with oil and about half way threw I remembered about the filter. Looks like I'm draining the oil and checking the filter, could be the switch.

For the battery it at 2.2 volts ill link it to my other battery and see if it takes a charge. I wont use on board gen charger probably draw more current that it can handle.

 

[dav5]

The screen on my unit was clogged with something that looked like ground up kleenex. The engine only had 2.2 hours on it. I had to change the oil 6 times to totally clear it. The head nuts were also very loose causing a minor oil leak.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

Oil filter is clean and oil switch activates with pneumatic pressure. I may have not put enough oil sure looked like it was at first thread.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

It not due to oil being low before, filled it precisely with 1.2 QT of oil. Placed ohm meter on Oil switch it stayed closed while engine was off and running. It is supposed to open when pressure rises above 15 PSI. Next step I'm going to find a pressure gauge that I can place on the engine. If no pressure is there I think I'm going to have to go into this engine too.

 

[NATCAD]

AHhhh , the third generator will be problem free!

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

The switch is good I swapped it with my other 831a and it runs happy with that switch.

At the operator level troubleshooting


Off to Unit-Level



When I drained the oil yesterday, it took forever. Maybe it has crap in crank case? I do think at one point someone took the had off due to missing head washers. At least this time the engine seems to have good compression and the enclosure is not beat to ****.

AHhhh , the third generator will be problem free!

LOL, that commit made my day.

 

[NATCAD]

If in doubt buy more sir! They can't all be bad... or all have bad govnors, or pull start ropes that snap off, or battery that are bulged or fuel tanks full of crap, or inverters that won't invert.

I was super impressed with your tenacity on number one. I would have set fire to it, or made it a buoy anchor after about 15% of the work you did on it.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

I don't think I have any other option then to go into engine. Tried new filter and o-rings no luck removed oil pressure switch, to visually see oil flow. Not even a drop of oil, not sure whats going on in there.

 

[Guyfang]

I don't post much on the 831A stuff. You guys have Dewey and he is the Boss Hoss on the 831A. BUT, A lot of times we got gen sets in that had "something" wrong with the oil system. Crud in it, or what ever. And yes, I saw two with something like paper in it. Took forever to get it all out. We would run the set to warm it up, drain the oil, and fill it back up with DEXTRON 3. Run it a half hour and then drain, add cheap oil, run a half hour, drain, add cheap oil, run it and then check it out. If everything was roses, THEN add Good oil. You might also pull the filter, put air pressure to the port where the switch screws in, and give it a shot. Over the years, I have found lots of STRANGE stuff inside engines.

 

[AfghanVeteran2010]

After finding paper towel in crankcase and removing threw fill port.


I filled it up with oil and I still cant get oil to flow from Sensor port, I had to of pulled the rope more than 50 times. No oil still, must be more stuff in there maybe caught up on oil path to pump. So I going to open the crank case tomorrow. Before I do that ill remove oil pump cover and see if there is anything in there.

 

[Guyfang]

That would tend to plug things up. Now this is just me, but I saw the same exact thing, 7-8 years ago. Twice at least, only the MEP-831A. I wonder if this some kind of "problem". Maybe someone get their kicks destroying these thing?