New to me 802

[CapePrep]

Hello All, I was just given a 802A that has only 14 hours on it. Lots of mice have made their homes in it for the last 5 years it has been sitting on it's shipping pallet. I am in the process of cleaning all of that stuff out. What a mess. I don't see any wire damage yet, but will continue to scrutinize. I am going to be anal about making sure all of the nest debris is cleaned up and removed. There is a lot of junk at the bottom of the radiator where it fell thru the grate. How can I get in there to remove all of that? I am obviously anxious to get this thing up and running. But, don't want to be premature. This machine was "preserved" by the military. It has a tag on it that says "engine preserved". The batteries had been disconnected, had green duct tape over the negative terminals and as you can see in pic, the batteries had little cellophane covers over the fill holes. I don't think these things have ever had acid in them! The insides look perfect from what I can see. I am going to get some battery acid, fill them up and see what happens! Also, I put a socket on crank pulley bolt and the engine turns freely. Almost too freely for me, but you can tell there is some compression. Also, the fuel tank seems to have some kind of oil in it. Thinking I should just flush that out with fresh diesel and let it be. No coolant in it. So, this thing was really "put up" for a long sleep I feel. Anyone care to pass along tips or info to move this project along?

 

[Farmitall]

****ed mice can make a mess of and ruin anything!

I would flush the tank with clean diesel.
Open and inspect the air filter for integrity of the paper element, change if necessary.
Change the oil filter.
Change the oil.
Check the hoses for dry rot.
Check hose clamps for tightness.
Check battery cable connections.
Check fuel line connections at injectors and pump for tightness.
Check belt for dry rot and proper tension.
Check the exhaust for any blockages.
Check the fuel solenoid for movement.
Add proper coolant mixture for your operating temps.

Good luck with it, hopefully it will fire up and run fine!

 

[Scar59]

Get a good shop vac and attach a long wand or hose to it and start snaking it around to capture all the debris. Then blow it out with compressed air and repeat.

 

[kloppk]

.... There is a lot of junk at the bottom of the radiator where it fell thru the grate. How can I get in there to remove all of that?...

My 802 had crap in there too. I had to repair my radiator because when they drained it they damaged it so I had to tear it down to repair it. With patience and a what seems a zillion bolts you can take the sheet metal apart and get in there. Or you can use a shop vac with a skinny tube, as previously mentioned, to get the big stuff out and then flush the fine stuff out with water. Just keep the drain holes on each side open.

 

[jamawieb]

Take the top cover off, which has about 30 bolts holding it on. Then get ready to replace the return lines on the injectors because I'm sure they are dry rotten now but this will be easy since the top is off. You got an awesome unit!

 

[kloppk]

Also check the rubber cap on the unused water pump port. They tend to dry rot and start leaking coolant.

 

[CapePrep]

Thanks for all the help guys! I will update this as we go along. I am sure I will be out in shop at 4Am tomorrow continuing to get this beast up and running. I will follow all of the sage advice here. Can anyone give me some feedback on the batteries??? Anyone seen this before? Hoping NAPA has acid for them and that is all they need. Would be sweet to have brand new batteries sitting in there.

 

[Farmitall]

The batteries may have been emptied of their electrolyte and the plastic placed under the caps to contain any vapors. They should smell of sulfuric acid if that was the case. If they had never been filled, then you have new batteries just waiting to be filled and charged for a while to bring them up.
I would do this with an external charger, then mount them instead of putting the load on the alternator.

Any good auto parts store should have battery acid, it shouldn't be difficult to find most places.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
Take a look at the batteries themselves.
The military uses dry charged batteries. (It means they are ready to go, just add acid, charge, and go) Type in the NSN number on the battery to get a idea of what, and which style it is.

Any oil you find in the unit will be preservation oil. It will be in the fuel tank, fuel filters, fuel lines, intake, exhaust, cylinders... You can also read up on what preserved is.

 

[Guyfang]

Those batteries have never seen acid. They are direct from the warehouse. So like Mike suggested, simply put acid in them, let them set a few hours and then charge them.

Like jamaweib and Kloppk suggested, remove the tops from the set, to start with. You will save time and nerves. If you need to remove more, then do so. Shop vac and air pressure will get lots of the trash out. Lots of rags can be your friend also.

Every post here in this thread is spot on. Take your time. Assume nothing. Check everything. Read the -10 manual. Then read it again. Lots of your questions will be answered before you even have them, if you do. Take pictures. Post some good ones of the inside of the control panel and engine compartment. Ask questions. The only stupid question, is the one not asked.

Good luck.

 

[Light in the Dark]

You can get battery acid from any parts store CapePrep. For my money, Id sell those unused batteries to someone else and put a nice set of AGM batteries in its place. They are fine batteries, but here in New England... the machines will demand more in the colder months, and I feel the AGMs are up to the task better. You are on the cape though, so I suppose you get the mildest of what we get here.

 

[Suprman]

I put optimas in my personal gens. The 802/803 gens arent hard to start in the cold with good batts.

 

[Bmxenbrett]

I would take the top pannels off and check around your electronics before you hook the batterys back up. Theres a nice spot for mice up in there.

 

[Guyfang]

I may have brought this up before. But it's still a great thing to check. How do you install the slave plug? A smart guy found out that if the pos. side of the plug faces the front of the set, and you have a wrench on the neg. battery terminal, on the RIGHT side battery, you can have a hair raising experance. So much so, that the CECOM sent out an Emergency MWO, (modification work order) to all units in the army, to Check, and correct any set found to be incorrectly mounted. If I can find a copy, I will post it. But it only needs a second to check.

So so take and post some more pictures!

 

[Light in the Dark]

I would take the top pannels off and check around your electronics before you hook the batterys back up. Theres a nice spot for mice up in there.

Absolutely would not hurt to do, just be careful that you account for all nuts and bolts. Would hate to drop something in the gen head and forget. Earlier sets have nuts on the bolts that run down the middle of the machine (over the seam where the two top roof sheetmetal pieces meet). Later sets have captive nuts installed (so you just unscrew the bolt from the top, with no concern for anything dropping).

You would be surprised how much mice, mud wasp, hornet, etc debris you can find in one of these things. You should also take this time to critter proof the machine as much as possible. Make sure the openings above the radiator, as well as the side of the unit near the throttle cable, are not broken. Also, you have (3) drain holes on the underside of the unit (one under each battery tray, and a large one under the belly of the engine). If it were me, I would buy some hardware cloth, and either self tapping screws, or nuts and bolts, and add protective hardware cloth mesh over each of these. That will allow for fluids to leak out as needed, but no critters in. Also once you figure out how you are going to wire the machine up... in your best interest to close up the wire entry port too, as best you can safely.

 

[CapePrep]

I would take the top pannels off and check around your electronics before you hook the batterys back up. Theres a nice spot for mice up in there.

Well, this was wise advice! What a mess!! I can't believe how much mouse/varment garbage I have removed from this unit. There was so much nesting material in this area that I am assuming the urine sat on this terminal strip and has literally dissolved some screw heads. To the point I need to replace the whole strip. A couple screws are just gone and the threads are broken off in the holes. I am also dealing with a non operating oil pressure gauge. Wondering if one of these screws that is broken off is a wire from the pressure sender. But the gauge is stuck on 50lbs or so and won't move. I did get the rig up and running and am having an issue with a 4000watt load that trips the overload for some reason. It is pegging the gauge at over 130%. Need to resolve that.

 

[rhurey]

Those are the leads from the generator head to the phase selector switch. So if some are broken off and not hooked up I'd stop loading it until they're fixed.

 

[dstang97]

The problem with mice is you can never get rid of that nasty smell. I absolutely hate mice. I adopted a Ferrell cat just to get rid of the mice around here. Worth every penny.

 

[robson1015]

The problem with mice is you can never get rid of that nasty smell. I absolutely hate mice. I adopted a Ferrell cat just to get rid of the mice around here. Worth every penny.

X2 on hate the mice!!!

 

[Guyfang]

There is someone, Sandmanxx I believe, who is parting out a set. There are at least 2 other people doing the same at this time. Suprman is another good place to ask. I would pull out the wire harnes and replace the TB's and anyother part too badly damaged. The k2 start relay looks not too healthy. You need to take a real good look in the wire harnes. All that crap can build a path for the output voltage to cause real problems. I sure hope you have that thing grounded. I would not run it until I had made some repairs, like the TB's.