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That switch kills the governor to protect the engine.
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831a oil pressure switch problem solved
- Thread starter smokem joe
- Start date
calsdad
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That's part of what made me suspicious. I have one of Kloppk's governor control modules - I tried swapping that in - and it still didn't fix the issue. Then I checked the output lugs - and I could not get the thing to output any power. At that point I started figuring there has to be something else wrong with this thing.
I can see it killing the governor to protect the engine - and killing the output to protect the engine , it's just that I think logically what it should do is kill the whole generator - to protect the engine if the problem is really that bad. In the bright sun - I couldn't even see the low oil light on.
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The unit would shut down if it had been running when the oil pressure switch tripped. If a unit starts with low oil pressure the governor never powers up and as such can't shut down the unit. The operator needs to be familiar with this failure mode and react accordingly.
smokem joe
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Mine had the same symptoms. It started and ran fine and then all of a sudden didn't start up and run normally. If the switch goes out it will keep it at very low rpms.
calsdad
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The first clue I had was that the switch itself was seeping oil pretty good when the engine was running. I took it out - cleaned up the threads - very carefully put some pipe tape on the (didn't want any getting into the engine) - and then reinstalled it.
The switch still leaked. When I put a clean paper towel around the switch itself , it appeared that the switch body was where the leak was coming from. I figured that was fishy - but I never noticed the oil light on so I figured the switch must be working ok. When I tried to run it - the engine definitely was staying at a low rpm. I thought possibly the governor was mis-adjusted - and it was. So I went thru the whole adjustment procedure. Still had the same problem. I have one of Kloppk's replacement governor controller modules - so I tried swapping that in ..... same issue.
By now it was getting late - and the sun wasn't in my face - and I noticed that oil light was on. Oh crap - maybe that's what the problem is. So I swapped the oil pressure switch from the other MEP-831a, tried it again - and everything was good.
smokem joe
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Mine looked brand new. I bought a pair of 831s that were rebuilt and had 2 hours each on them. One worked perfect and the other worked for a couple times and then wouldn't work. Researching it there seemed to be a lot of trouble with them on these units. I bought an extra, but if that one goes out I will be looking at jumping the switch and discarding it.
smokem joe
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Or instead of using this particular switch try another one with similar specs if they continue to be a problem
calsdad
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Mine looked brand new also. Both of the MEP-831's I have went thru the reset - and had ~ 2 hours on the hour meter. The switch itself looked brand new (the label was nice and clean) - but it was seeping oil at a pretty good clip. In my case I think what was wrong was the switch itself was somehow fubar'ed inside and was leaking oil - and whatever was fubar'ed was also causing it to read incorrectly.