MEP003A success

[rat4spd]

I'm not sure who was bidding against me on the 003A that I got from Camp Dodge. I'm sorry you didn't get it as I paid way more than I wanted. You could've had it for $50 more.

However, after I got it fired up this morning, I no longer regret winning it. It was missing the fuel tank, and the batteries were dead, but the fuel tank is a non issue. A couple of fittings and some fuel line, and I has it's thirst quenched in a 5 gallon can of diesel.

The trusty duece I brough home supplied the electricity to turn her over, and at approximately 10AM, she roared to life, full of fire and fully functional. All checks SAT.

I'll now change the oil/filter, air, and fuel filters, and decide if I'm going to hard wire it to my house, or trailer mount it......

I'd sell it, if someone offered enough, but with only 900 hours on it, it would have to be a fair amount........what a beast.....

Video to follow.....

 

[rat4spd]

Videos

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxtZ3y2me8[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkMgqiz-d2w[/media]

 

[DUG]

Congrats Dave! Looks good. Deuce looks good sitting in the yard too. Would look even better with a 5 ton nearby.

 

[BBoomerBootCamp]

Nice work Rat4spd, I bought a mep003a in Barstow a week back and 2 mep002as on a trailer in Las Wages a couple of days back. I'm looking forward to the sweet sound in person

 

[rat4spd]

Thanks. It looks like I got lucky. I'll fab up a fuel tank in the future. Right now I have too many other irons in the fire.

 

[jeepin]

Did you try pre-heating before cranking, maybe you just didn't film that part. But if you didn't try pre-heating per the TM before cranking. see T M 5 - 6 1 1 5 - 5 8 4 - 1 2 "starting"

 

[rat4spd]

In the first vid, it was about 15 minutes after I ran it for about a good 15 minutes. So hot apparently means starting back up immediately. Yep, in the second vid, I hit the heat for about 30 seconds prior to starting the camera.

I had just assumed it would fire right back up. It's a learning experience. The start sequence is right on the front of the unit. Big plaque, but "hot" is subject to interpretation.

On a note, I had all three TM's out there with me.

 

[Monkeyboyarmy]

I think that you have to engage the starter longer so that when it starts it will have a couple of seconds to build oil pressure and engage the oil pressure disconnect switch before you go back to run.

 

[dirtyfingernails]

You must engage the starter until the oil pressure reaches 38 or 40 psi. Look at the manual. It can be found here.

 

[rat4spd]

"Hold until engine gets up to operating speed or until 15 seconds." ......seems counter intuitive, but yep. Would've saved some aggravation had I not missed that.

The low pressure cutout is 14# and normal running pressure is 25#.

 

[Speddmon]

Congrats Dave,
Sounds like you get a h**l of a deal. I can't wait to pick mine up on Wednesday morning. I've already got the filters and such as that, I'm going slow and giving it the complete once over before trying to fire it up though, new oil and filters all around. Sure could've used it tonight though, power was out here for a few hours. Isn't that the way it always goes though, once I get them running I'll probably never see another power outage.

 

[rat4spd]

Thanks

 

[powerhouseduece]

"Hold until engine gets up to operating speed or until 15 seconds." ......seems counter intuitive, but yep. Would've saved some aggravation had I not missed that.

Your not the only one on that. Me and a buddy got one of my dads up and running and it took us about 25 min. to read that part. Also all of the fuel lines were loose and as it was priming, we would tighten the fitting as we went.

1 down, 5 more to get running.........

 

[baxter]

Great looking unit I have seen a few and I am hoping to pick one up this year. Does anyone have any advice on what to look for ( problem signs) I want a mep003 with enclosure what is the going rate on GL. Thanks for the help.

Vaughn

 

[Speddmon]

I think you'll get a much better deal if you can find an event where they are selling a bunch of them at one time. Also, I would say if you're looking for one with the enclosure, go and preview the set personally or have someone trustworthy do it for you. The military is terrible about cannibalizing equipment, since they don't open up the panels in their pictures, when it's enclosed you never know what you're in for.

 

[baxter]

Speddmon thanks for the info, I have also thought oif just putting one in a small enclosed trailer instead of a sound enclosure. I have been watching and it seems like all the gen sets are back east I may just have to do a long road trip.

Vaughn

 

[rat4spd]

Well, I won't go into it again about how I got this at auction. Needless to say, I was looking to get it cheap, but that didn't happen. And to top it off, I didn't make it there to preview. So, I could've got there and found the IP, or the oil cooler gone, or the starter. As it is, the fuel tank is missing, but that's an easy fix.

In a few words, I got lucky. The fuel pumps were replaced in 2007, and I just haven't had time to go over it in detail to see what else has been recently replaced.

There have been a few auctions where they put up dozens of these, and many with almost no hours. Just keep your eye like was mentioned for an auction with as many as you can stand to wait for to help dilute the prices some.

Oh, and it's much larger in person than it looks, and real heavy.

 

[Speddmon]

I have also thought oif just putting one in a small enclosed trailer instead of a sound enclosure. I have been watching and it seems like all the gen sets are back east I may just have to do a long road trip.

My personal preference is the open units, I'm sure that the ASK does a great job of sound deadening but since I have had to purchase mine sight unseen as well, I like to inspect the pictures in the auction very, very closely. Compare the pictures with others that are up for auction and look for differences to see if it looks like parts are missing or new. Check for signs or age and use, if the control panel is severely faded and the hour meter is almost new with only 10 hours on it, then it either sat around in the weather a lot or it's had the hour meter replaced. Either way doesn't necessarily mean a bad unit.

If you can only find one on the east coast, before bidding starts try to make arrangements on here for someone to pick-up and store it for you if they live close. I'm only an hour from Columbus and have seen several for sale there. Good luck to you and I hope you get a good deal like Rat did at the beginning of the thread.