PU798 (MEP-803a & M116A3) Followed me Home!

[JRM]

I can here it quite well on my nice desktop speakers, 5-10 second mark. Mine had that same "nailing" on 1 cylinder and it also smoked blue under load. I picked up a new filter/water separator and filled it up with lubro Moly Diesel Purge, fired up the genset for just a minute or two and as soon as the exhaust smell changed I new the Purge was being burnt I shut it down and let it sit for 2 days allowing the purge to clean the injectors. Fired it up on day 3 and I had a completely different genset, no smoke and that nailing was completely gone! I learned about this trick on vwdieselparts with people restoring older vw diesels that also have low injection pressure (compared to modern 30,000psi) diesels.

 

[Haoleb]

Thanks for the advice. When i watch videos at home I have my 2 channel stereo hooked into my computer so I guess it is more noticeable. Seems like I hear the same sound on nearly all the videos but in person it just doesn't sound quite right to my ears.

I did bleed the fuel system as described in the TM. I think I will get a couple cans of that diesel purge stuff. Seems like a lot less work than removing and testing injectors and such. And the reviews on Amazon all seem to be pretty positive. Worth a shot!

 

[Haoleb]

Found the sections of the TM that describe troubleshooting both the fuel and temp senders and gauges. Here is what I found: Engine cold temp sender was somewhere around 1.3kohm the manual just says "over 300". I tested the gauge with resistors and the gauge works exactly as expected so I have a NOS temp sender on the way off Ebay.

Fuel gauge I measured the resistance on the sender wire to ground and it reads what it is supposed to when the tank is full. Then I put different resistors on the gauge which did not respond at all. So New fuel gauge for that issue!

I have also been getting materials to upgrade my generator hookup from the 30A hookup it is now to a 60A hookup. I will be running conduit from my manual transfer switch with 4AWG THHN to a control box which will have some large terminal block inside. Originally I wanted some sort or reverse service connector and plug but when stepping up to a 60A rating those plugs get pretty expensive really quick. So for now anyway I purchased 20' of 4/4 SOOW cord that I will hardwire to the generator and then when I need to use the gen I will just wire the other end into the lever lock terminal blocks mounted inside a box. Should still be pretty simple to do. I will document it when I get to that stage.

 

[Korgoth1]

I use these, they have been great. You would need the sb75

https://www.waytekwire.com/manf/02/Anderson-Power-Products/&sc=12&Series=SB-175

 

[lonesouth]

are those 240v rated? I see them used in DC circuits all the time, great for hooking up a winch, but haven't seen them in an AC application before,

 

[Daybreak]

are those 240v rated? I see them used in DC circuits all the time, great for hooking up a winch, but haven't seen them in an AC application before,

Howdy,
I use them here to hook up a 30kw PTO generator
Anderson Power Products. They have various sizes, 50amp, 175amp, 350amp etc.. You double them up for a 4 wire connection.
cable set below is 2/0 welding cable with SB350 plugs

 

[Guyfang]

Howdy,
I use them here to hook up a 30kw PTO generator
Anderson Power Products. They have various sizes, 50amp, 175amp, 350amp etc.. You double them up for a 4 wire connection.
cable set below is 2/0 welding cable with SB350 plugs

These are great connectors. We use them all the time here in germany. Almost all electric forklifts use them, along with many other pieces of electro gear. Simple to use, repair or change the cables on.

 

[Haoleb]

I am surprised I have not seen those connectors before. They are quite reasonably priced as well compared to the Hubbellock and Pin & Sleeve ones I was looking at. They even have some with IP68 rating. Wish I saw these before I ordered my other terminal blocks.

These are what I have on the way, I have a background with industrial controls and control panel fabrication so I always have had a fondness of stuff made for that industry. They are rated at 125A and will accept 12-2AWG wire.

 

[Guyfang]

We also use these parts. I am working, (Sometimes) for a company that does Photoelectric Power Systems, Bio-gas Systems and Large Transformers work. in 2015, we did 7% of ALL Photoelectric installation in Germany. Not bad for a 45-50 man company!

I love these new "goodies" and you do not have to screw anything. Spring tension contacts are great. Simple, and easy. The WAGO company here is about the best known, and deserving of that big name. I think they are the best, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ costly. About the only PITA to these new contacts is the fact that after stripping the end of the wire, when you stick it in to the contacts, on occasion, a bit of the wire can be bent back up, and you do not have a "clean" connection. Man is it hard to translate all this into english!

 

[Another Ahab]

We also use these parts. I am working, (Sometimes) for a company that does Photoelectric Power Systems, Bio-gas Systems and Large Transformers work. in 2015, we did 7% of ALL Photoelectric installation in Germany. Not bad for a 45-50 man company!

I love these new "goodies" and you do not have to screw anything. Spring tension contacts are great. Simple, and easy. The WAGO company here is about the best known, and deserving of that big name. I think they are the best, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ costly. About the only PITA to these new contacts is the fact that after stripping the end of the wire, when you stick it in to the contacts, on occasion, a bit of the wire can be bent back up, and you do not have a "clean" connection. Man is it hard to translate all this into english!

We're grateful that you do all that translating for us, Mr Guyfang.

You just need to give that translation muscle of yours a little rest now and then, and you should be fine!

 

[Guyfang]

When I retired, I told myself that staying in germany required me to live like a german. In retrospect, that's not right. But that's another story. In any case, I decided to divorce myself from the Army, and live like a german. So I went to the unemployment office and told them I was looking for a job, one that would have some kind of future. Not just step and fetch it. So this weisel and I went round and round.

Nothing I had did or accomplished in my life before retirement amounted to a hill of beans. OK, I can accept it. Didn't like it, but accept it. Said weisel at the unemployment office told me that "All you amies, (slang for americans) want to start at the top, no one wants to learn anything. You know it all!" My reply was that I wanted to go to trade school and learn to be an electrician. Stopped that little rat cold. And that's what I did.

I went to school. I had never read or wrote german before my first day in school with a bunch of snot nosed 16-17 year old kids. I was 40. It was a 3.5 year course, I did it in 2.5 years. Big mistake, cutting off that one year, but that's another story.

About the first hour in school, I figured out that trying to translate all this stuff into english, so I could understand it, was not good. Because then I would have to translate it BACK to german, to use it. So from that point on, I never tried to learn anything in english. Only german. Now, of course, after 23 years, I have of course translated some of it in my head into english, but not all. So it takes a while to express myself technically in english. I do pretty fair in german though!

 

[lonesouth]

1. Thank you for your service.
2. thanks for sharing, interesting path you've taken, bet its been an adventure

 

[Another Ahab]

Nothing I had did or accomplished in my life before retirement amounted to a hill of beans. OK, I can accept it. Didn't like it, but accept it. Said weisel at the unemployment office told me that "All you amies, (slang for americans) want to start at the top, no one wants to learn anything. You know it all!" My reply was that I wanted to go to trade school and learn to be an electrician. Stopped that little rat cold. And that's what I did.

That story is one excellent saga, Guyfang. My hat's off to you!

Now that I know the story it makes me want to call you "Sparky"

I can't remember where along the way that I picked up that term (Seabees, the trades, the industry, or what), but whenever I was on a job and needed to discuss something with an electrician, I'd always call over, "Hey, Sparky!!"

 

[Guyfang]

We used that term also. Yeah it was an adventure alright. And its not over yet!

 

[Haoleb]

So I have had some more time to play with the generator in the last couple of days. I replaced the fuel gauge and now that works pefectly. I also received the replacement temp sender and that does not work wonderfully. I put some Loctite 592 thread sealer on it when I installed it and I guess according to the Beede website that was a no-no since it obviously needs to ground to the block to work properly and it has taper threads that are supposed to seal. I'll have to continuity check it when I get home but it should still make a good electrical connection even with the sealant. The temperature gauge worked perfect when I troubleshot it with resistors. And then it worked great again when I ran the gen for a while before I put the new sender in so something is intermittently not functional.

I also received 2 cans of diesel purge. I poured it into a mason jar and got a short hose that went from the jar to the fuel pump inlet then I also ran a hose from the last tee in the fuel return line back to the jar creating my own little fuel tank so I could run straight diesel purge. That really did not seem to make any difference in the sound of the engine. I am starting to think I am just hearing things and it is actually normal. When it is loaded down it sounds even better. I had 12.5KW on it yesterday and the engine was chugging along sounding great.

As to wet stacking I do think this unit may have had some wet stacking going on. There was no visible goo or anything but it will smoke a little with 50% load, with 100% load it smokes even more. I ran the set for a little over an hour yesterday with 4500 watts and it was clearing up well. Then I stepped it up to 8KW and ran it for about half an hour with the battle short engaged due to premature overload faults that I am still working on in another thread. Once in a while I can see red embers shooting out of the exhaust especially when I first add another load. Then for kicks I ran it for a few minutes with 12.5KW, showing just over 52A output and a hair over 100% on the gauge.



I must say thing things just picks up the load with practically zero hesitation. The frequency may drop around .75-1hz and the voltage wont flinch. I am very impressed with what this set will do compared to every generator Ive used in the past. The little 5000 watt gas generac I am replacing would have died if I switched on 4500w load all the sudden... In-fact I am looking forward to seeing how it will do when I hook up just one of the water heater elements to it!

Once I get the overload thing sorted out I want to run it at 100% load for several hours straight and burn off anything else that is in the exhaust. I just don't like the idea of leaving it going for that long with the battle short engaged unless I can watch the gauges.

 

[Korgoth1]

If it pulled a full 12.5 I would say the engine is fine.

 

[CT-Mike]

I must say thing things just picks up the load with practically zero hesitation. The frequency may drop around .75-1hz and the voltage wont flinch. I am very impressed with what this set will do compared to every generator Ive used in the past. The little 5000 watt gas generac I am replacing would have died if I switched on 4500w load all the sudden... In-fact I am looking forward to seeing how it will do when I hook up just one of the water heater elements to it!

I dumped 10KW worth of water heater elements on mine all at once and it barely even shrugged. Little puff of smoke and a slight slow down until the governor caught up. I was amazed, these things are beasts.

 

[Haoleb]

Spent some more time load banking it today and fiddling with the temp gauge. As it turns out I am a complete idiot. The gauge needle was just stuck in the left side of the housing. Once I did some more troubleshooting and could not find a fault I looked at it more closely and tried tapping it with a wrench on the housing and it came free and worked as normal. I tore apart my defective fuel gauge to see how it was made and unfortunately you can't get the front bezel and glass off without destroying the metal bezel ring but at least now I know if it does not work it just needs a little tap. You would think I'd have figured that out since I do this sort of thing for a living.


If I have the engine speed set to 60hz and then dump a big load should it drop and recover back to 60hz? Because mine does not. It just drops and stays there.. about 1hz per 5KW. Not a big deal if you run constant loads and can adjust engine speed but for variable loads like actually running my home it may be more of an issue even though the fluctuation really is not that bad. Most switch mode power supplies like those in majority of modern electronics shouldn't care the least if the frequency is off by 1 or 2 hz.

Been looking into getting my standby setup in the house upgraded. I already bought all the materials to do it myself but I'm not real fond of working in my existing transfer switch when its live. Called my power co and they said they will pull the meter but need the local inspector to sign off before they reseal it due to the town I live in. In my town any electrical stuff has to be done my a master electrician. Basically I have no option to do it myself and stay within what the town says I can do. Called one electrician today and he is booked 3 months out. I might just end up borrowing the arc flash PPE from a place I work for on the side and just do it myself with the switch live. I'd be doing everything to code and then some. Its pretty silly that the inspector can't just sign off on me doing it provided it meets code... Arghh.. end rant.

 

[DieselAddict]

Yes, that is called droop. It is normal. 2hz is a little higher than I would expect but not a serious problem. Set it for 61hz unloaded and you will be down to 59hz loaded.

There is a procedure to adjust the governor in the TM. Making it track too tightly can cause RPM hunting. That is way worse than being a hertz high or low.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. I would make sure your governor linkage moves freely. That can cause some issues with excess droop as well. A bit of lube on the linkage is always welcome. Voltage control is more important. These sets are very well controlled for voltage.

The fuel gauge is a balanced coil type and not a spring return type. It should stay near where it was when it is powered off. Hopefully it won't get caught up at the edge unless something pushes the needle over that far. I would bet that happened from some rough handling of the set if I were to guess.

 

[rhurey]

I can't find the specific standard easily, but even the national grid doesn't maintain 60Hz constantly. There's an acceptable level of drift.

The power companies would in the past make up for it at night. Not sure if they still do based on some experiment conducted in 2011.