The ebay generator restoration thread
Discussion
hidetheelephants said:
Having cautioned against buying cheapese tat; I've just bought two DOA diesels, preliminary examination reveals an absence of compression and missing/damaged injector seals, so that's the first thing to investigate.
Kraft Tech/ Kraft Hertz? If you haven’t already found it http://www.generatorguru.com/ appears to be a good source of Chinese generator parts. All the generic 5-6kva generators appear to use the 186F diesel engine which is a copy of a Yanmar this site has some manuals for the 186F engine http://www.repairdynamics.com/html/186f_diesel_.ht...
Had some time with folks and generators - we had a black camp in bosnia when the local supply failed - one guy went up and started the generators and closed onto to the switchboard. He had issues as the generator was pulsing. He came got me and I went up and pooped myself. managed to kill the generators and open the circuit breakers before the utility company reset their fault. Hed started up and switched before disconnecting the incomming supply. These were big sets so they were 750kw each. Cant have begun to imagine the pop if they utility had come back on.
We got some castell interlocking - only one key out at any time to stop that from ever happening again.
We got some castell interlocking - only one key out at any time to stop that from ever happening again.
Never mind the bang, what about the poor linesmen who don't deserve to get turned into crispy critters? 750kW unravelling if the supply came back in out of phase would make a mess.
Anyway, back to the thread; these two b
d offspring of a concrete mixer are 3kW jobbies, the product of a manufacturer so ashamed of their output they couldn't even bring themselves to make up a brand for them, so they imaginatively slapped stickers down the side with 'air-cooled diesel generator' emblazoned on them. There are no obvious electrical infarctions so once I rustle up some injector sealing rings it will be the moment of truth.
Anyway, back to the thread; these two b
d offspring of a concrete mixer are 3kW jobbies, the product of a manufacturer so ashamed of their output they couldn't even bring themselves to make up a brand for them, so they imaginatively slapped stickers down the side with 'air-cooled diesel generator' emblazoned on them. There are no obvious electrical infarctions so once I rustle up some injector sealing rings it will be the moment of truth.finlo said:
Wouldn't it be powering the whole local area if you did that?
Well, it might try to - but the mains is never going to come on in perfect phase with the genny - and it has a lot more than 1kW or whatever to melt your genny with. That's why you need a transfer switch - mine is automatic, scavenged along with the genny from an old telecoms room. 3 seconds after it detects mains failure, it starts the genny and then switches to genny power. You can get manual ones as well, a lot cheaper. But mine keeps the genny battery on float charge, and has all sorts of lights and things to look nice.
Likewise, 3 seconds after it detects the mains being back on, it turns off the genny and switches back to mains power. It's 15kW so serves the house just fine.
People using "suicide leads" with a 13a plug on both ends of the lead tend to blow up their gennies.
The linesmen are normally fine, as they "hot work" just in case some eejit plugs their genny in without isolating the house first!
I think I managed to ruin the new battery the previous owner had fitted. The ignition got left on during the week, only discovered when I tried to start the engine today and found it was completely dead. I checked the battery and it was reading 0.6V. Have put it on charge in the hope it will recover.
On the plus side, made some progress this afternoon, got all the casing stripped off
Removed the cross brace that supports the alternator
Can now get access to the fuel level sender
Next job it to get the sender out and see if it can be fixed and fit an ignition warning light.
On the plus side, made some progress this afternoon, got all the casing stripped off
Removed the cross brace that supports the alternator
Can now get access to the fuel level sender
Next job it to get the sender out and see if it can be fixed and fit an ignition warning light.
hidetheelephants said:
Woohoo! 
Partial success; one of the cheapnese diesels lives! All it needed was an injector seal and away it went. It even makes electricity! Oil and filter change and it can go onto Gumtree.
Now for the second one; I might actually remember to take some pictures this time.
Thats great, fun isn't it Partial success; one of the cheapnese diesels lives! All it needed was an injector seal and away it went. It even makes electricity! Oil and filter change and it can go onto Gumtree.Now for the second one; I might actually remember to take some pictures this time.
Got the fuel level sender out of the fuel tank
Don’t think there should be a gap, no wonder it shows as open circuit!
The sender is basically a variable resistor, as the fuel level drops the resistance increases. The contact should be touching the coil of wire wrapped around the brown part.
I bent the contact arm so it is touching the coil, now gets a reading.
Cleaned all the rust from the top of the sender and refitted back in the tank.
Fuel gauge now working.
During the week what must be the most expensive bit of plastic ever arrived
That small piece cost £10.00! On the plus side once fitted it will double the value of the generator
Old (black) vs new
Fitted
During re-assembly, noticed a problem with fitment of the air filter cover. If fitted how it was when I picked up the generator the clips wouldn’t fit and the cover wouldn’t sit correctly
Should be sitting flat
When fitted in what seems the correct way where the clips can be snapped in to place
However cover interfered with the choke operation causing it to stick closed. The black tab on the right of the spring should move all the way back in the slot (behind the tab)
To give it more clearance, I made the slot wider
Choke now works correctly.
Fitted new fuel hose and filter
The old hose was starting to crack up
Also fitted a LED to show the ignition is on (so I don’t flatten the battery again)
All I need to do now is to finish re-assembly, change the oil and sell it.
creationracing said:
Probably a bit after-the-fact, but if you need a bit of plastic like that again, just go rip a door card off a few cars at your local scrapper. You'll find something on the end of a central locking rod that you can easily re-purpose.
Cheers, didn’t think of that.The big 10kVA genny is up for sale now.
In the meantime I gave this one a service.
Didn’t buy this one, as it belongs to us. My dad got it about 30 years ago for use as part of his job (electrician) and for using with the caravan. It’s still working although recently it’s been getting a bit difficult to start.
Popped the spark plug out, which was looking a bit carbonised, and noticed there was a fair bit of carbon in the cylinder.
After flicking through the manual it said it should be de-carbonised every 100 hours of operation, so decided to take the cylinder head off.
Strip down started
Quite a bit of carbon in the cylinder
Cylinder head
I cleaned up the cylinder and head with a soft wire brush and wire wool
Probably gained one or two of it’s 75cc back by clearing all the carbon. After re-assembly it fired up almost straight away, the carb just needed a bit of tweaking. It now seems a lot happier when running under load.
KTF said:
What stops the generators from cooking themselves as some dont seem to have radiators, thermostatic fans, etc. or any form of airflow to cool them down - compared to water or air cooled engine in a car or bike for example?
Little ones are fan cooled, bigger ones have humungous radiators. On boats they use heat exchangers with water taken out from outside.KTF said:
What stops the generators from cooking themselves as some dont seem to have radiators, thermostatic fans, etc. or any form of airflow to cool them down - compared to water or air cooled engine in a car or bike for example?
As tr7v8 said they are air cooled with fins on the cylinder like petrol lawnmowers etc, there is fan attached to the flywheel which draws air in, normally through the pull start and blows it across the engine like the VW beetle engine.Latest progress
After lots of time wasters and stupid offers, the massive yellow Stephill was sold a couple of weeks ago and is now providing joy and excitement to young and old as it has gone to a bouncy castle hire outfit.
This left room for a new project:
It’s a 5.5KW inverter, I had been watching this one for a couple of months as the seller kept listing it and not selling, so I made an offer and go it.
The fault was with the inverter pack
The capacitors shouldn’t look like that! The tops should be flat and not split. The plan is to try and remove the black coating and replace them.
It also had a starting issue, which I tracked down to the choke appeard so be missing
Found the missing choke plate in the bottom of the case under the engine
The plate should slip into a slot in the choke shaft, however one side was missing
To fix it I drilled a couple of holes in the shaft and plate so a M2 bolt could be used to hold it together.
All bolted together
Just need to put it back in the carburettor, the nits will be fixed with thread lock to prevent them working loose and getting into the engine.
The carb also got the usual strip down an clean as it was really gummed up.
More to follow….
eliot said:
Was that the oxfordwheelshop one?
I offered £150 for it, but said he had someone who was willing to pay much more -(i assume you) yet still kept listing it.
Yep,I offered £150 for it, but said he had someone who was willing to pay much more -(i assume you) yet still kept listing it.
I offered £180 as I figured that’s what he would get after fees, ended up paying £200 as he said he had another offer of £200 and the first to get there can have it, which at the time seemed like a good deal. However after looking a bit deeper into it today I’m not so sure
Looks like the stator windings have got a bit warm…..
Blue32 said:
Yep,
I offered £180 as I figured that’s what he would get after fees, ended up paying £200 as he said he had another offer of £200 and the first to get there can have it, which at the time seemed like a good deal. However after looking a bit deeper into it today I’m not so sure
Looks like the stator windings have got a bit warm…..
He was pretty abrupt with me. I said it wasn't worth what he was asking for it and it was a bit of a punt that it's just the inverter that had gone.I offered £180 as I figured that’s what he would get after fees, ended up paying £200 as he said he had another offer of £200 and the first to get there can have it, which at the time seemed like a good deal. However after looking a bit deeper into it today I’m not so sure
Looks like the stator windings have got a bit warm…..
His words were:
"I know how much an inverter is and i also know the rest of it is in perfect working order and also know the reason it has blown
I dont care how many times its failed to sell i have a buyer who deals in these things that will give me £225 if and when ever i wish to sell it
So if he deals in them its worth more than that so your opinion dosnt count thanks"
Clearly the rest of the thing isn't in perfect working order.
I've picked up a working IG3000 for the house, going to start work on a changeover panel as there are some cheap misprinted changeover switches on the bay at the moment.
Hope you get it fixed though.
Edited by eliot on Monday 16th May 18:57
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