Mep002a ammeter

[sjacobs1259]

Hey yall. I just recently acquired a mep002a. I've been doin a little work here and there on it and it runs great. I can power almost my entire house with it. But I've run into a small problem. I've got good power output and all that good jazz but the ammeter isn't working, let me rephrase that something isn't working. The ammeter reads but it's very low and when there is a surge like when I turn on my a/c window unit the meter jumps. So I feel that the meter works and the problem is else where. I've traced wires to a certain point where everything spits up at the S6 and everything looks OK but after the S6 it becomes a cluster of idk what to do lol. this is a new area for me so any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Evvy Fesler]

Hey yall. I just recently acquired a mep002a. I've been doin a little work here and there on it and it runs great. I can power almost my entire house with it. But I've run into a small problem. I've got good power output and all that good jazz but the ammeter isn't working, let me rephrase that something isn't working. The ammeter reads but it's very low and when there is a surge like when I turn on my a/c window unit the meter jumps. So I feel that the meter works and the problem is else where. I've traced wires to a certain point where everything spits up at the S6 and everything looks OK but after the S6 it becomes a cluster of idk what to do lol. this is a new area for me so any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Good morning and welcome!

I’m a tad confused because you say everything works great, you can power you house adequately, and the ammeter jumps and recognizes the surge current for the A/C. So what’s wrong?

Do you doubt the accuracy of the meter? If that’s the problem statement you can use an electrician’s multimeter, the kind with the amp clamp, and compare what it measures to what the onboard ammeter measures. Keep in mind that a typical residence draws much lower “runtime” power that you might expect. It’s entirely possible that the ammeter is accurate.

Evvy-

 

[Evvy Fesler]

There are many brand names on the market. You may have one already, but if not, don’t spend a lot of money. The big box home centers have them and for occasional use they’re fine. Notice the clamp. Just clamp it over L1 anywhere and then L2 anywhere (close to the gen terminals) and read the value.

 

[sjacobs1259]

Good morning and welcome!

I’m a tad confused because you say everything works great, you can power you house adequately, and the ammeter jumps and recognizes the surge current for the A/C. So what’s wrong?

Do you doubt the accuracy of the meter? If that’s the problem statement you can use an electrician’s multimeter, the kind with the amp clamp, and compare what it measures to what the onboard ammeter measures. Keep in mind that a typical residence draws much lower “runtime” power that you might expect. It’s entirely possible that the ammeter is accurate.

Evvy-

So when I've got a load on the generator regardless of how much the load even to the point of bogging it down is the ammeter dosent get above the 25% mark. With a surge it jumps to the 50% mark and goes back below the 25% mark. I tired a multimeter yesterday day and I jus got 0 across the board so I might have been doing wrong. I'm not an electrician I'm a diesel mechanic. I kno enough to get me by but I'm pretty inexperienced

 

[Evvy Fesler]

So when I've got a load on the generator regardless of how much the load even to the point of bogging it down is the ammeter dosent get above the 25% mark. With a surge it jumps to the 50% mark and goes back below the 25% mark. I tired a multimeter yesterday day and I jus got 0 across the board so I might have been doing wrong. I'm not an electrician I'm a diesel mechanic. I kno enough to get me by but I'm pretty inexperienced

A subtlety about measuring current is that unless you have the clamp type, you have to disconnect a line and put the meter between the terminal and wire. DON’T DO THIS! That’s why you couldn’t get a reading measuring from one terminal to the other. You can only measure voltage this way. So voltage is measured across the lines and current is measured through the lines. Again… please don’t measure current the way that I described. You’re risking serious burns and electrical shock should the load current melt down your meter wires. This isn’t likely because there’s a fuse in the meter, but hey, I care about your safety so you can stick around and type more posts!

 

[Ray70]

Since this machine is new to you, first thing I would do is open the AC reconnect box and count the number of turns the fat AC lines make through the CVT assembly. If someone swapped out the AC box with an 003 box your readings will be very low.... about 1/2 what they should be.
Next thing to try is to physically work the AC select switch under the cover on the AC reconnect box back and forth several times. Dirty contacts in the big switch can cause low AMP readings. Be careful, if the switch gets stuck in one position, don't force it, just jiggle it aggressively and it will free up all of a sudden.

 

[rickf]

Be sure to do that work with the machine off

 

[jamawieb]

Clean the reconnection switch with electrical spray 1st before you do anything else.