MEP-831a Troubleshooting

Thanks. That is how it works for about 30 minutes then it looses its mind. It will become unstable. Stability can be restored if I trim the gain pot down but it slowly becomes unstable again. Once I have the gain pot all the way down it will become unstable and there is nothing else I can do to resolve it other than shut it down for an hour or so. I'm thinking the controller is bad.

I put in a request to the websites that offer to get you quotes for parts in the NSN network. I've gotten a number of quotes from vendors. I've been shocked at all of them.

Here is the breakdown.

ISO Group, Inc. - $415
Vanc, LLC - $565
LAS Defense, Inc. - $650

The folks at GAC were pleasant but indicated they couldn't talk to me about it due to it being a military part. They pointed me to Fermont.

I called Fermont and they are looking to see if they have any controllers and what they could sell it for. They were going to send me a bulletin for setting up the governor that supersedes the info in the TM.

I'm also bidding on another unit and worse case I hope to be able to use it for parts.

There is nothing that supersedes the TM
Like I said before, I wrote the set up.
Fermont was bought by a large Italian company and one of their engineers tried to re-write the procedure.
There is such subtle word changes that it doesn't matter, it was just for them to say they did something.
I probably shouldn't say this on this forum but........ I have worked for Fermont for 35 years and am the test engineer.
If they are willing to sell you a governor controller, then someone will probably be getting a hold of me to find out if we have one.
We are not producing these sets anymore a company called Fidelity Technologies in Penn. is now building these sets.
See we now belong to a large Italian corporation and they need to bid very high on contracts to cover all the overhead so we haven't won a contract because of price, since they took us over.
Who did you talk to at Fermont? By the way the name of the company has been changed to CCI.

That totally sucks about the contracts. I've seen that happen more times than I would care to say. Nothing like new owners not knowing enough about something to be competitive.

I didn't write the guys name down but he sounded pretty young. He did say that the units weren't in production there anymore. He also said he was really busy and didn't know when he could get back in touch. I doubt my request is a priority. I'm OK with that. I'm determined to get this thing back in fighting shape. Even if it means building my own controller from scratch.

I'm more than satisfied with the info you provided about the setup of the governor. I used it to get the generator purring like a kitten. I am very thankful for it.

Once I have a healthy controller I'll be set.

For my OTHER project - wish me luck on getting my friends Jaguar to stop misfiring.

I'm stuck in limbo for the moment over the governor on the generator but that didn't stop me from going out and doing SOMETHING on it today.

I picked up some weatherstripping from Lowes to go around the engine compartment hatch. The old material was long gone. WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Wow.

This is the material I bought.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_161713-81-0...entURL=?Ntt=black+weatherstripping&facetInfo=

For the batteries I'm using a pair of motorcycle batteries (YTX20L-BS). They are very close to the size of the factory battery. The pair was under $100. No lack of energy for the starter. Spins it right over. The ones I bought are sealed AGM which is what the stock battery is.

I'm going to put some double sided tape between them so they are easier to handle. I have to rig up a battery hold-down since that was missing.

They look good ! ! Is the speed controller the Assy with the arm on it that has the magnet and linkage?

Yea, that is the actuator for the speed control. I have that part set up and working correctly now. It's the electronic controller in the instrument panel that needs to be replaced.

When I shoot the video it will cover setting up both parts.

Well, looks like I am going to be bringing another MEP831 home.

Did you win the 1 out of NC ?

I did.

Let us know how that 1 is. I noticed a few things disconnected on it. Other than that it looked in good condition.

The one I picked up today looks pretty good but the alternator is partially disassembled. It is going to take some work to get it ready to start. I have no idea why someone would have done that. I may take the alternator off and see if the engine itself will run. Depending on what I find when I dig into it more it may end up being a parts machine.

For the one I already have working I topped it up with fuel today. In 12 hours of running it has consumed 1.8 gal of fuel. That is insane (in a good way).

Diesel,
Is it running good now or still acting up?
For the one you just got, if the PMA is partially disassembled that may be a job to get back together.
Is the rotor out of the stator?

I took the controller from the one I bought today and switched it to the other one. Its running perfectly now. No more acting up. Definitely a bad controller.

On the new one the rotor is still bolted to the engine. The stator is loose and rotates with the rotor if you turn the engine. And of course its now missing the controller.

Well, I got mine running today. Didn't take much to get it to fire, but I have a slight problem... no oil pressure. I pulled the oil pressure switch and I'm not getting oil out of the port. F$%&! I have a pretty good external oil seep that I can't seem to locate so I'm not sure I want to try to fix this in the chassis or just bite the bullet and pull the dang engine. To remove the oil pump you have to pull the alternator because it blocks the third bolt.

The electronic throttle doesn't seem to be working as well. I'm not getting any more than a high idle out of the unit and it will not shut the engine off. Even hitting the emergency stop button won't kill the engine. I had to pull the governor lever to shut it down. I tried to apply power to the terminals of the governor and it seemed to work ok. Can somebody shoot me a video showing how it's supposed to function?

For my batteries I went with a pair of Yuasa YTX20L-BS batteries. There is a identical battery with the terminals reversed and this install might just work a tad better with one of both types. That battery costs $20 more though. The batteries came with bolts for the cables, but I just couldn't get them to work. The one was too short and the other one was too long. I ended up using some M6-1.00x16 bolts and they were very close. I found these bolts bottomed out, but if I had a washer under them they worked perfectly. For the battery hold down, I used two 1/4"x4" eye bolts, two 1/4"x5" battery J bolts and a pair 1/4" T knobs. To provide sufficient space, the one eye bolt needs to be straightened slightly. I then drilled the battery tray and the chassis for the bolt. Be sure to move to the left at least 1/2" so you'll have room underneath for the nut. The same problem exists on the other side, so you'll want to measure over 8" to the other one. I had to redrill my hole because I hit the edge of the fork pocket so learn from my mistake. My suggestion is to make the layout on the plastic tray and then drill the right hole and install that bolt before drilling the left one. This will ensure the two holes align. I sealed the tray holes up with some silicone should the battery develop a leak. For the hold-down I used a Westward 1EFZ5 rubber strap. It fits the two batteries just perfectly. For the jumper cable I used a 12" length of THHN 4g from my local big box store. It's pretty stiff, but they'll sell me just a foot. The terminals really should be a 1/4" size and this ring is pretty hard to find in a 4g. I ended up getting it from Grainger. You'll need (4) of them because I have not found a battery lug that will work. The charging lugs are too small for the OE clamps to fit.

I posted a video of the governor operating in this post - http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showth...ubleshooting&p=1665883&viewfull=1#post1665883

I've not had a chance to make a video on how to set the governor up.

I didn't use a traditional battery lug. I used some copper electrical lugs from Lowes. It fits the battery cables in the generator fine and fits the battery terminals.

I have a much, much larger gap than that. Ok, so I'm going to guess that my govenor is also out of adjustment and that it's trying to shut the engine down due to low oil pressure.

The gap with everything adjusted properly under no load should be about 5/16".

On the plus side these engines seem to be inexpensive to repair. I hope you find something simple inside when you get it out and apart.

Well, I got the oil pressure issued traced back to a pinch o-ring at the oil filter. When replacing the filter be careful to not pinch the o-ring. I have to reassemble the generator, but this won't take too long. This means I'll be needing to adjust the throttle in the near future. Do you think you could get the video posted by Thursday?