Newer mep-802a no longer a parts generator?

[kayak1]

I purchased a MEP-802a the other month, then went away:

2003 Libby MEP-802A 5kW Generator Set

5 kVA, 5 kW, 120/208 Volts 3 Phase, 5 kVA, 5 kW, 120/240 Volts Single Phase, 120V Receptacles, Fuel Tank

www.govplanet.com

I am back and spent the last couple of weekends working on and off, on the new MEP-802a.

I had purchased it hoping to move the stator from this to my failed mep-802a.

I took most of the tin off of the two generators to find the my 3 jaw pullers were too small to pull the stator end off the bearing.

From that point, I decided to see about getting the new one running as it might be nice to end up with a backup.

In the process, I found all of the pressurized fuel lines had dry-rotted. I replaced all of the pressurized lines and one of the tees as I only had one new one on hand.

The inside wasn't in great shape as it was converted with diesel and a few mouse nests. I couldn't find any chewed wires. It looks like they attempt to put leaves etc into the alternator.

I pressure-washed the non-electrical parts and vacuumed out the unit a few times, it’s much better now.

I moved the batteries from the old to the new.

I filled the radiator with water for now.

I drained ~2.5qts of oil as the oil looked brand new but was to the top of the filler.

I moved the missing relays over from the old to the new one and was able to start it.

I ended up moving the control cube from my old one to the new one as the new one was missing the alternator fuse, two wire start ( https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threa...ote-start-parameter-monitoring-system.190193/ ) and the fuse upgrade.

The battery still won't charge. I expect that the alternator is dead. Do I need a working alternator, or is having a 24x7 battery charger good enough?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G3STB1N

The other issue I need to address is the cooling system, as the radiator overflow nipple was missing, and they did some creative work with the overflow/drain lines.

I am going to see if a radiator repair shop exists within a couple of hours, as I would like it to be able to pull back in from the overflow bottle.

Has anybody had luck repairing the overflow nipple?


I ran the generator for an hour or so; at first, it was dark smoke. I ran it at ~4779va (90amps at 53.1 volts) into my batteries with the charger:

EG4 Chargeverter | 48v 100A Battery Charger | 5120W Output | 240/120V Input

Signature Solar provides solar panels, off-grid solar systems, grid-tie, and hybrid systems. Quality solar inverters, bifacial solar panels, complete solar kits, solar batteries. Featuring brands such as EG4 Electronics with their solar battery, LifePower4 and EG4 LLifePower4 and EG4 LL

signaturesolar.com

and the smoke was mostly cleaned up.
What the batteries didn’t want was pushed back to the grid, banked to use this winter.


I still don't know if the 2nd fuel pump is working. I think the 2wire controller will kick it on when the tank is 50% and then fill it up to 75% (extra fail-safe to prevent the tank from overfilling and dumping diesel on the ground).

In any case, I am thrilled to have something better than my EU2000i up and running.

I need to figure out what I am doing with the old one. Do I make it a runner or move the alternator and radiator over, box up the parts I might need, and put them in the basement?

 

[kloppk]

...
I still don't know if the 2nd fuel pump is working. I think the 2wire controller will kick it on when the tank is 50% and then fill it up to 75% (extra fail-safe to prevent the tank from overfilling and dumping diesel on the ground).

Correct
If it's started manually the Aux pump will turn on and off as it would without the Remote Start.
If started by the Remote Start then the fail-safe is active to prevent overfilling due to a bad float switch.

 

[kayak1]

Correct
If it's started manually the Aux pump will turn on and off as it would without the Remote Start.
If started by the Remote Start then the fail-safe is active to prevent overfilling due to a bad float switch.

I love the remote start system you make, it's really well thought out and well put together.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Having a properly working alternator is best. It is possible to run a battery charger though, while the machine is running, to take its place. The way I have my machine setup is with a dual bank on board charger. It has a power entry port I cut into the lower kick panel near the aux fuel door, so I can run an extension cord to it while the machine sits idle. This design also allows for a short 6' extension cable to be used directly off the machines plugs, right back over to that port... if the alternator ever fails under use. Somewhat still self contained.

 

[Light in the Dark]

That radiator nipple is brazed on. You should be able to find a radiator shop that can do the repair work (hopefully, seems to be a dying art).

 

[Ray70]

Agree with LITD, fix the alternator and keep the battery charger as the backup.
Radiator is a good old brass tank and everything is soldered to it.
If you still have the nipple it should fit snugly into the hole in the radiator.
If you have a propane torch, flux and solder you can fix it easily yourself, otherwise ANY radiator shop can handle it for you, if you can find one locally!
There used to be one on every corner 30 years ago!
Now there's a Dunkin Donuts every 1000' but only 2 radiator shops left in my state and only 1 repairs radiators.... the other just swaps them with new!.

 

[kloppk]

When I got my 802 the drain nipple was ripped off the radiator. I was able to pull the radiator and solder it back on with a torch.

 

[Light in the Dark]

I would absolutely get the second unit operational for backup.

 

[kayak1]

Agree with LITD, fix the alternator and keep the battery charger as the backup.
Radiator is a good old brass tank and everything is soldered to it.
If you still have the nipple it should fit snugly into the hole in the radiator.
If you have a propane torch, flux and solder you can fix it easily yourself, otherwise ANY radiator shop can handle it for you, if you can find one locally!
There used to be one on every corner 30 years ago!
Now there's a Dunkin Donuts every 1000' but only 2 radiator shops left in my state and only 1 repairs radiators.... the other just swaps them with new!.

Mine didn't include the nipple, thus I don't have anything to solder in place.

I found a radiator place and just called them. https://www.yellowpages.com/lewiston-me/mip/lincoln-street-radiator-5214933 not exactly close, but they think that they can fix it.

I will now have to look for an Alternator shop.
-Jason

 

[Light in the Dark]

There is a Presolite authorized repair shop in Lebanon NH I've used with good luck Jason. Look through the first or second page of forums posts, their info I just shared a few days ago.

Can just ship it to them and they will handle.

 

[WWRD99]

This is a great thread. Enjoy reading all that you've done and figured out. I have a question about that overflow. It looks like the overflow hose is connected to the bottle on the top and bottom. In the loop it looks like it tees off and goes under the radiator?? Weird. Anyhow...when you remove the rad cap there's a hole in the neck where the overflow should be hooked up to?? The alternator is pretty simple to figure out if it's the gen wiring or fuse or the alternator itself. Should have voltage on the little connector when running. If not I'd check that fu1 fuse and the power coming out just to make sure the power is running through the cap. If it is bad I'd highly recommend asp wholesale in Florida. I've bought countless rebuild kits from him plus had a custom made 200 Amp alternator for a 59 caddy. Great guy. Hope you figure out the little stiff and have a great running machine when you're done.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

 

[Light in the Dark]

There is a Presolite authorized repair shop in Lebanon NH I've used with good luck Jason. Look through the first or second page of forums posts, their info I just shared a few days ago.

Can just ship it to them and they will handle.

Facebook

www.facebook.com

 

[kayak1]

There is a Presolite authorized repair shop in Lebanon NH I've used with good luck Jason. Look through the first or second page of forums posts, their info I just shared a few days ago.

Can just ship it to them and they will handle.

That's just the other side of the river from my wife's favorite place King Arthur Flour. It might be time to take the day off and drop by the presolite place and King Arthur, I will check with her to see if they have any classes that she would like.

As for the other one, once my next-door neighbor gets his tractor reassembled I might contact you and load the original one into my truck and bring it over (if you have the time and are willing) and we can work something out for the parts and help to make it a runner again.

Thanks again!

 

[Ray70]

This is a great thread. Enjoy reading all that you've done and figured out. I have a question about that overflow. It looks like the overflow hose is connected to the bottle on the top and bottom. In the loop it looks like it tees off and goes under the radiator?? Weird. Anyhow...when you remove the rad cap there's a hole in the neck where the overflow should be hooked up to?? The alternator is pretty simple to figure out if it's the gen wiring or fuse or the alternator itself. Should have voltage on the little connector when running. If not I'd check that fu1 fuse and the power coming out just to make sure the power is running through the cap. If it is bad I'd highly recommend asp wholesale in Florida. I've bought countless rebuild kits from him plus had a custom made 200 Amp alternator for a 59 caddy. Great guy. Hope you figure out the little stiff and have a great running machine when you're done.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

So in the picture up above the hoses are incorrectly looped together.
Normally the line from the nipple at the cap goes to the bottom of the bottle.
The overflow line at the top of the bottle gets connected to both the drain on the front of the block under the water pump, the drain on the bottom of the radiator and then out through a hole in the frame near the battery tray,

 

[kayak1]

So in the picture up above the hoses are incorrectly looped together.
Normally the line from the nipple at the cap goes to the bottom of the bottle.
The overflow line at the top of the bottle gets connected to both the drain on the front of the block under the water pump, the drain on the bottom of the radiator and then out through a hole in the frame near the battery tray,

When it broke, it looked like it gave someone the opportunity to make it into an art project.

Your normal is just how my other one is and what this will be once the radiator has been repaired.

I have already re-routed the overflow line out the hole in the frame. It's one less place for a mouse to enter the generator now. I will be adding hardware cloth to the bottom and the sides shortly. (Suggestion by Light In the Dark).

 

[kayak1]

I ran the generator for over an hour this AM, and the tank dropped below 1/2 tank and refilled back to 3/4 using the aux pump. So it looks like the aux pump is a runner.

It was able to produce at 4.5kW. It blended in with the solar to make an interesting graph. You can even see the blip where I oped the A/C circuits and then re-closed it.

 

[Ray70]

Humm, very interesting. Since I'm not familiar can you explain what we're seeing on the graph? Is this a 1 day time frame? Green is solar production throughout the day I assume?? What's the red, Net usage?

 

[peapvp]

It is interesting on how just a consumption of 3KW per hour adds up to 2.2 Mega Watt ( 2.2 Million Watt )
3 KWh doesn't sound much, but over time it will accumulate.

 

[kayak1]

Humm, very interesting. Since I'm not familiar can you explain what we're seeing on the graph? Is this a 1 day time frame? Green is solar production throughout the day I assume?? What's the red, Net usage?

Green is production, normally, solar is the green. Now that the generator is directly charging the batteries, it looks like the solar in the graphs (and feeds back into the grid as it was solar via the inverter interconnect agreement).

The red is usage. I have set up a number of other views and filters that can change how the data is displayed.

The data is being logged from:

Energy Metering Systems | eGauge

eGauge home and commercial energy meters connect electricity usage and solar production to the internet for users to monitor in real time. Certified high accuracy (ANSI C12.20 0.5 percent).

www.egauge.net

Having the data has helped me save a lot of power by changing how the heat pump water heater mode to heat pump only and adding a bunch of insulation into the hot water recirculation loop (and adding a way only to run 20% of the time and limiting the hours that it runs).

I also removed the Nest controllers from managing the heat pump heating and swapped them to ESP8266 controllers using this project: https://github.com/gysmo38/mitsubishi2MQTT/ this allowed the heat pumps to run much more efficiently. With the Nests, they would run in all-on or all-off mode. Now, the heat pumps will manage the ramp-up or ramp-down and are much more efficient.

 

[kayak1]

It is interesting on how just a consumption of 3KW per hour adds up to 2.2 Mega Watt ( 2.2 Million Watt )
3 KWh doesn't sound much, but over time it will accumulate.

We have used 526kWh in the last month just for car charging. That would cover about 2k miles.

It all adds I should upgrade some of our computers to newer ones that use less power. Servers running 24x7 with older spinning drives do not help.