Picked up 6 MEP-802A gensets and will be documenting making them all runners here

[R Racing]

Making some good progress !!! My experience with things unplugged on military gens has been if its unplugged its bad

 

[oldsman]

Really nice job on the basement, family 1st, and good luck on the 802a's.
I just found out I can't do what I wanted with one of my 802a's, so I'm going to have to sell one, so I can get an 803a. I probably won't be lucky enough to find a 803a with only 8hrs like I was on the 802a's.

 

[oldsman]

Battle Short Switch

I know this is a dumb question, but here it is anyway. I'm assuming this Battle Short Switch does just what it called? So no one accidentally flips it what is the best way do away with it?
TIA

 

[R Racing]

On the mep-004a and bigger. The battle short switch has 2 purposes. 1st to prime the day tank. 2nd once it's up and running once switched on it will allow the generator to run if there is no oil pressure. Or if it's over heating. It ignores everything. On my mep-004a I can't start it in battle short . But I can afterms it's up and running if nessary.

 

[CDR]

Thanks guys. Yes, it turned out real nice! A couple pics of the initial framing.

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I did floating bamboo flooring and the cabinets are from Ikea. I had enough tile left over from when I did my main kitchen and panty many years ago, so I was able to use that for this little kitchen and door entrance.

So I went and played with the 802 that does run and made decent progress. First I re-wired the connection between the fuel solenoid and TB4 using solder and heat shrink and cut the wire to length (it was way too long before). I then added wire loom in all the areas there was evidence of chafing.

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I then figured out why I kept getting a low oil pressure fault when starting the engine. Up until now, I had to leave the low pressure switch open to get it to run. Turns out wire 130A (oil pressure sender) and 143C (oil pressure switch common) were reversed.

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I then re-installed the control box and started the unit. Still no oil pressure reading (or anything else except coolant temp), but none of the fault indicators were tripping and I tested they all worked.

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I was only getting 7.5 VAC between L1 and L3 and GND, and 15 VAC between L1 and L3. Frequency was around 57 Hz (as measured using hand held unit). So I adjusted rpm up until I get 60.0 Hz. I checked voltage between as many of the 12 stator terminals as I could, and they were all around that 7.5 VAC I was also getting on the output. I checked battery voltage and I was getting about 14.7V, so the charging systems appeared to be working fine.

After a while, the coolant temp settled at around 170, which I think sounds about right, maybe a little high for no load?

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I noticed a slight fuel leak at the #1 injector supply line, so I shut the unit down. Turns out the flange nut was just a little loose.

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I measured the resistance between the stator windings, and they were around 2 ohms, so I think they are ok. I'll check the field flash relay, but I'm pretty sure it's ok since I already cleaned them all relays and checked that contacts were good.

When I first looked over this set, I noticed the 4 prong plug for the exciter stator was disconnected, so maybe I got a bad exciter? I sure hope not!

I'll worry about the fuel, charge and oil pressure gauges later as I'd like to get it making power first!

To the best of my knowledge there two oil pressure switches one for the gauge and one for the fault code light. Mine works. My fuel gauge and low fuel shut down does not work. Mine runs 185 degrees with a load in curious what everyone else's do.

 

[pclausen]

Thanks, so I seem to be running normal temp with no load I think.

I was able to fiddle a little with it this past weekend. I popped the end bell cover and was greeted with this:


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So the leads leads had all been disconnected and worse:


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The rear bell housing structure is cracked around the center bearing. So I guess I might as well stop trying to make this one a runner for the time being.

I think my plan now is going to be to begin putting the first one of the 3 disassembled units back together instead and make that my first fully working (hopefully) unit. It looks like I'll definitely have to make one of my 5 units spare at this point. With some luck, hopefully there are enough working parts between these 5 units to make 4 of them runners (including making power).

Peter

 

[R Racing]

Maybe over time you will come across a replacement bell. I did notice the cracks don't appear to go thru to the bearing boss?

 

[Chrispyny]

Maybe over time you will come across a replacement bell. I did notice the cracks don't appear to go thru to the bearing boss?

Good eye. If that is steel, maybe weld it up? It seems i see hammer marks on the bell housing supports. Seems like someone was wackin on them pretty good.

 

[R Racing]

Good eye. If that is steel, maybe weld it up? It seems i see hammer marks on the bell housing supports. Seems like someone was wackin on them pretty good.

If its Aluminum its easily TIG welded. ( I TIG at my shop a fair amount)

 

[pclausen]

If the exciter stator and rotor, and main generator stator and rotor windings all check out, I agree welding might be an option. Or like you said, maybe I'll stumble across a another bell down the road. The other 802 that I picked up with this ones is showing 7500 hours and the fuel tank was drilled when they drained the fluids. The enclosure is also banged up pretty good. That is going to be my parts machine if need be.

 

[Keith_J]

If welded, the bearing bore will have to be machined.

 

[BobbyT]

Yeah, as others have mentioned, you should be able to weld those cracks up as well as add more weld material over the fix welds to build up that area for extra strength since there is plenty of room to add material. I would assume its probably cast aluminum since i don't see any rust anywhere especially around the hammer marks.

 

[Ratch]

Any update on this? I'm curious about the three rebuilt units, if they've breathed any fire yet.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
I was thinking the same thing. Haven't heard anything in a while. I would hope 1 or more are together and working.

 

[Crabbie]

This all seemed too ambitious from the get go. I hope that I am wrong but I bet someone bit off more than they bargained for?? I got my 802a up, running and making power but it was a PITA and a project that I won't tackle again any time soon.

 

[CDR]

This all seemed too ambitious from the get go. I hope that I am wrong but I bet someone bit off more than they bargained for?? I got my 802a up, running and making power but it was a PITA and a project that I won't tackle again any time soon.

This is what I said from his first post when when he was pulling out the fuel pumps thinking they where injectors. SLOW DOWN. At least one of these generators he should of just thrown fuel in it saluted it and turned the key. The guy had huge drive way more then i ever I hope he is ok

 

[Ratch]

Life gets busy, I'm sure he's just tied up with higher priorities.
But reading back through this thread from the start just now, I noticed a lot of this could have been discovered with a camera through an injector port. I bought one when I bought an 803, because I wanted to see into the cylinder before turning it, and didn't want the hassle of a head gasket job. It worked out very nice.

 

[rustystud]

These projects have a way of getting out of hand. Especially doing 3. I'm a professional mechanic by trade and I spent 6 months of my free time fixing up my first MEP-003A. You try and get every little detail just right and sometimes that is just not a realistic approach. On my two MEP-002A's I fixed up, I did just what needed to be fixed and then just a little more for added insurance (Like replacing all the fuel lines). You can drive yourself crazy trying to make it perfect.

 

[Chainbreaker]

These projects have a way of getting out of hand. Especially doing 3. I'm a professional mechanic by trade and I spent 6 months of my free time fixing up my first MEP-003A. You try and get every little detail just right and sometimes that is just not a realistic approach. On my two MEP-002A's I fixed up, I did just what needed to be fixed and then just a little more for added insurance (Like replacing all the fuel lines). You can drive yourself crazy trying to make it perfect.

Boy can I relate to that now that I'm up to 3 units! On my first one everything had to be just about perfect mechanically and cosmetically...resulting in lots of tinkering. Now that I'm up to 3 I've changed my tune a bit. My new approach is this test...Is what I am about to do going to make it run better, become more functional or improve reliability? Its still hard to resist at times but if it ain't broke I don't try to fix it. That approach has saved me $ and time.

 

[dynotatics]

So I have a 802 where the fly wheel spins but wont trun the main shaft. is there a clutch between the engine and generator? Maby a shear pin? any help is greatly appricated!