Need Help Getting the Gremlins out of MEP-003 control Panel

[JOateyNV]

The story begins one sunny day in the desert of California, Barstow. I picked up a MEP-003 that I had won from GL. A NO SCREENING auction. Got the MEP home and found out it had a stuck motor. Tried all the tricks, motor would not move.

Found rebuilt motor for a good price, ordered motor. Tore down Gen Set. Installed new motor, repaired a couple bad spots in the wiring harness. Got new motor started. Everything looked okay, adjusted motor to 60 HZ, ran great, checked for leak, etc. The only problem was the Battery gauge and the hour meter did not work. Checked across batteries was getting 25.5 volt and climbing. Called it a day do to darkness. Checked TM's and could not find anything on this problem, but I did see a couple posts about batteries and charging.

Decided to run the Generator and check for voltage with my wife's (she was a engineer before 3 neck surgeries) fluke meter. Started Generator and found HZ meter would not go above 56Hz. Had throttle at about the same position as yesterday at 60 HZ. Checked power at 110 outlet, had 110. Checked voltage at posts had correct voltage. Tried restarting Generator, same thing. Here's where it gets interesting. Changed voltage selector to single phase and voltage meter on control panel pegged to the left. Voltage checks good at the posts, but meter is weird. So to summarize: Battery Gauge 000, Hour meter 000, Hz Meter maxs at 57HZ, and Voltage meter moves to the left when in single phase. I don;t know where to start. Please help me get the Gremlins back in the bag. Thanks Jeff

 

[leedawg]

Did ya move the selector to the appropriate position for indication of the volts and percent load? That switch just changes what the guages are reading and if you are in a 3 phase mode when it is in single phase then they are not going to indicate right..

 

[Harleyd315]

Check the ground strap from the control box to gen frame, I have had some weird stuff go on, only to find out no ground at the box. That may help the D/C problems.

 

[Isaac-1]

I agree, when I see such problems the first thing I try to check is all the grounds.

 

[JOateyNV]

First of all, thanks for all your Help. I did manage to get some of the little Gremlins back in the bag today. The battery gauge, the voltage gauge and the hour meter are all working correctly now. I took all 3 of the grounding straps off the Gen Set cleaned the ends and the mating areas and reattached them. At first that did nothing. Same problems. Then my 2 remaining brain cells collided and I tested the battery gauge to ground and got voltage. Checked the + and - terminals on the hour to ground, they were reversed. Remember about the selector switch under the cover by the outlet and the voltage worked correctly. But still NO ground on the front panel so the battery gauge would not work. Made a grounding jumper from the grounding bolt inside the panel to the front cover mounting screws and amazingly the battery gauge worked. So the only Gremlin that is still out running around is the HZ gauge. Still does not get above 56 Hz, remember this worked when I first started the unit with the new motor. I'll bring home my good meter from work and check to see if it's the gauge of something else tomorrow. Any suggestions would help. Or if anyone thinks that running the grounding jumper to the front panel is a BAD idea, please let me know. Again, thanks for the help. Jeff