The ebay generator restoration thread

[Heroin chic]

Yep, afraid that looks like a goner. Might be worth keeping an eye out for a spares or repair one with a dead engine, because the generator end is easy to swap!

[dhutch]

Presumably we're looking at the dark/black section on the bottom right of the winding on the left? Over heated, melted internally, hence developed internal short?

[Heroin chic]

Yeah, sometimes they let the smoke out from a high resistance dodgy solder joint, or sometimes just a weak spot in the winding. A lot of mass-production gennys these days don't even have soldered wining terminations - they are just "pinned" in which is a particularly shit way of doing it.

[littlebasher]

There's a resistor and/or diode hiding on the underneath of that as well

Or at least there was before it burnt out !

[ooo000ooo]

Took this apart last year, took this photo to make sure I could put it back together again. I've got an extra wire which isn't in the photo. There's 4 wires from the motor. I've got a location for 3 of them, 2 on the left, 1 on the right. I don't think there was anything connected to the bottom right pole.
The cable coming in from the right comes from the on off switch, cable at the top goes to a huge big capacitor.
Would 2 of the motor wires go to the blue side?

[Buprenorphine chic]

What generator is it, and have you a pic from further back/of the whole unit?

[ooo000ooo]

Buprenorphine chic said:

What generator is it, and have you a pic from further back/of the whole unit?

Sorry, it's the motor off a home built compressor I inherited from my dad.

[ooo000ooo]

Probably the wrong thread as a compressor is the polar opposite of a generator but there seems to be some knowledgeable people about these type of things in here.

[ooo000ooo]

The motor

[netherfield]

Should be some internal wires going to a centrifugal switch, usually a wiring diagram on the underside of the terminal box lid. Are there no markings on the terminals at all?

[ooo000ooo]

Terminals are marked y,X,z top left to bottom left w,v,u top right to bottom right.
Obviously not designed by someone with OCD
No wiring diagram on the lid of the box, no sign of any obvious switches at this point.

[hidetheelephants]

ooo000ooo said:

Took this apart last year, took this photo to make sure I could put it back together again. I've got an extra wire which isn't in the photo. There's 4 wires from the motor. I've got a location for 3 of them, 2 on the left, 1 on the right. I don't think there was anything connected to the bottom right pole.
The cable coming in from the right comes from the on off switch, cable at the top goes to a huge big capacitor.
Would 2 of the motor wires go to the blue side?

The burnt-out linkbar on the right is a bad sign.

[ooo000ooo]

hidetheelephants said:

The burnt-out linkbar on the right is a bad sign.

I'm not sure if that's why it stopped working or a symptom of something worse.
This was built from stuff my dad borrowed begged or stole from work about 40 years ago, god knows how old the parts actually are.

[hidetheelephants]

Do you have a meter? Strip off all the wires and the linkbars and measure the resistances between the six terminal posts and also between the terminal posts and the motor casing(where the green/yellow wire is fastened).

[netherfield]

You won't see the centrifugal switch, it's internal, at the opposite end to the pulley, start winding gets the motor to speed, the switch operates and the run winding takes over. Start winding is the one with the capacitor attached.

I hadn't spotted burnt contact at first, after going to funsnap and looking closer I can also see the bottom right terminal is very rusty, no doubt making a poor connection, which could be why the link has burned in the first place.

The terminal identifiers are standard across all manufacturers.

Edited by netherfield on Tuesday 29th June 11:24

[ooo000ooo]

netherfield said:

You won't see the centrifugal switch, it's internal, at the opposite end to the pulley, start winding gets the motor to speed, the switch operates and the run winding takes over. Start winding is the one with the capacitor attached.

I hadn't spotted burnt contact at first, after going to funsnap and looking closer I can also see the bottom right terminal is very rusty, no doubt making a poor connection, which could be why the link has burned in the first place.

The terminal identifiers are standard across all manufacturers.

Edited by netherfield on Tuesday 29th June 11:24

i didn't remove anything from the bottom right one, there was no connection or signs of anything between it and any of the other terminals, if i stick the meter on it am i looking for a connection across the inside of the terminal block?

[netherfield]

ooo000ooo said:

i didn't remove anything from the bottom right one, there was no connection or signs of anything between it and any of the other terminals, if i stick the meter on it am i looking for a connection across the inside of the terminal block?

Sorry my fault, I meant the centre right terminal looks rusty, and could be why the link has melted.

[ooo000ooo]

netherfield said:

Sorry my fault, I meant the centre right terminal looks rusty, and could be why the link has melted.

It snapped as soon as i tried to loosen the nut holding the wires on so wasn't in great condition.

[pquinn]

ooo000ooo said:

netherfield said:

Sorry my fault, I meant the centre right terminal looks rusty, and could be why the link has melted.

It snapped as soon as i tried to loosen the nut holding the wires on so wasn't in great condition.

Looks just like the way VAG alternator fuses would cook to death when the undersized crimp overheated, leading to a vicious cycle of corrosion/resistance/heat until the whole box would melt down.

So check all the terminals and connectors are good.

[ooo000ooo]

pquinn said:

Looks just like the way VAG alternator fuses would cook to death when the undersized crimp overheated, leading to a vicious cycle of corrosion/resistance/heat until the whole box would melt down.

So check all the terminals and connectors are good.

Just need to figure out where this extra wire to the motor goes.