I've been looking forward to writing this post for over a year...I had success this weekend and was able to get the generator running for the first time!
I'm super excited. This genset will be used to power my woodworking workshop where I don't have access to grid power so I'm pretty happy to have it going. Huge thanks to
@Ray70 for rebuilding the injectors, that seems to have been the issue. Also, special thanks to
@jamawieb for all your help. Here's how it went this weekend...
I pulled the injector pump cap off the front, unscrewed the holder, and took the spring and delivery valve out like I had before. Then I used a small tool with a hook on it and LIGHTLY pulled it along the inside wall where the delivery valve sat and out came the black plastic spacer all in tact. I took a picture of the parts I was able to get out.
Then I looked inside the injector pump and saw the familiar piece with a 1/16" hole in it
My friend turned the engine over by hand and sure enough that was the plunger head, it turned freely and moved in and out just like it should. It sounds like from other posts and images in the Ambac rebuilt guide that most plunger heads are a solid piece. Maybe I misunderstood, but mine decidedly has a hole in the middle. Here is the plunger motion.
Satisfied that the plunger was working properly, I decided to put it back together and figured I would just need to obtain the missing needle valve and then I could try and crank it up again. I put a little clean diesel in a container to rinse each part off as I re-inserted them into the injector pump. When I got to the holder, for whatever reason, I looked inside before cleaning it and saw the needle valve stuck in there!!!! I nearly fell over, obviously when I put things back together last year I got mixed up. I turned the holder over and out it fell. I then re-assembled everything correctly and tried cranking it over. It took a bit but all of a sudden white smoke!! That was a first. A few more cranks and she was going. The unit has 459 hours on it and seems nearly fully in tact. I even found the grounding rods and brand new aux fuel cable wrapped up and tucked in on the floor.
I let it run for a couple mins and then changed the oil, oil filter, both fuel filters and put the ASK back on. Boy does she sound good. I'm elated. This is my first experience with these generators so any quick tips or advance anyone wants to share I would welcome. I know there are sticky's and TMs I need to read up on but any tips would certainly help.
The next part I have my fingers crossed about is that I have a 5hp 1phase Leeson motor (20.5 FLA) for my dust collector that I hope this baby can get going. I've read the thread about the breaker popping with induction loads like this. Real world running power should be around 15-17amps at 230V but start up power is supposed to be 105amps. I could get a microair easy start which would drop the starting amps to 30 but it's $325 and I'm not sure how that would affect the Leeson motor long term. I could also try changing the motor out for a 3 phase and get a VFD which would probably be the best option but more involved. I really hope it just works, otherwise I'll probably start another thread looking for options.
For now I'm really excited and need to work on getting 80' of SER cable to run up to the shop and then a subpanel and starting wiring things up.
Can't thank everyone enough, there's no way I could have gotten it running without this group.
Jonathan