Identifying a 60's generator set

[Catlish]

Hello, first post!

Well, I'll cut to the chase. My neighbor pulled an old generator from the barn and he told me to restore it cos' he's going to use it daily. He can't date the thing. But we think it's from around the 60's. And I can't identify it, because someone around 20 years ago tried to start it and made a mess, lost the shroud of the engine and bunch of other things.

I've been asking in a few small engine forums and the engine is a wisconsin MBKND.
However, everybody seems to agree that this is a military set and that I should start by asking here.

So, here it goes:

This generator is not in the US. And the US army has come nowhere near this country in decades. So, how may have this thing arrived here?

Does anyone know what this is? Year, model, manufacturer. Etc.

Can anyone show me a picture of what this set should look like? I need to fabricate a few parts that went missing trough the years.

Hope you can help me

César.

 

[NDT]

Hello, welcome, good luck in restoring democracy in your country. You are correct, that unit is very early 1960's. I did a Google image search for "Wisconsin MBKND" and sure enough there are pics of a similar unit and ebay listings for parts. At 1500 watts, added to the complete unavailability of electrical parts (voltage regulator etc), my advice to your neighbor is not to rely on this unit to keep a refrigerator full of expensive perishable food from spoiling etc.
I would guess the unit was brought to Venezuela back in the old days when relations were better between our countries.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Yeah thats a well worn dog, good luck in finding info. Not sure I'd trust it to keep a beer fridge running, but I do understand folks are having to do what they need to do right now in Venezuela. May whatever happen be as bloodless as possible.

 

[Guyfang]

NDT is correct. The last time I saw one of these sets, and it was several dozen sets, they were all in the scrap heap in Germany. That was in 1973. Unless you get really lucky, and find someone with a junk set, you might as well toss it in the scrap heap also. Running the set, (if it will run) without the shrouds will cause the engine to overheat and lock up. I wish you luck, and hope things settle down in Venezuela soon.

 

[tbearatkin]

Hard to say if this is a video of one running or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjB1JlG3OpM

 

[Catlish]

First of all: Thank you so much for your kind words and wories on the ongoing situation of my country, thing went to **** in the last few weeks, but justice will prevail at the end of the day, and democracy will be restored, I'm sure.

Now, the generator is actually not that bad. The regohm regulator is in perfect shape, no rust at all. I tested all the capacitors and they all turned ok. The rats only chewed a cable. and thats easy to repair. the generator itself is in pretty good shape, but just missing a breather cover.

About the ol' wisconsin: well, he has seen better days. But only the piston, rings and valve guides are worn, nothing a shop can't fix in an hour ir so.
And fun fact: I've actually found a brand new, old stock piston and rings for this baby. About the shorud, well, we're going to visit a few junkyards, and if we don't find anything, i'll just have to McGiver a new fan shroud out of old aircon pipes.

About running a fridge on this thing: Well, If it lasts' a week, its way better than not having anything. FYI, we're still having national blackouts once or twice a week. We have no schedule on the electricity cuts, and sometimes we are given only 2 hours of electricity per day. So, people have to find creative ways of keeping their fridge cold. Since the average person earns about 2-3 usd per day, we have no hope of buying a 1000+ usd generator from the shelf. And thats where these kind of 'relics' come into play. They're cheap to mantain, and usually less expensive to rebuild.

At my parents house, they're using a 70's Black&decker 5kw genset, and it works like a champ. Meanwhile, here in the city, we're all charging our phones at the only house with a generator in the block, sometimes there are 40+ phones at a time.

I really hope this generator doesn't die on my neighbour XD, as he lives just across the street, way closer for me to go charge my phone and laptop for the university.

Now, I never thought to actually google the engine model :facepalm: And you're right! There are some similar sets.

I'll update this post when the generator is up and running, but meanwhile, if anyone has more info on the thing, I'll highly appreciate it.

Keep safe, ya'll!

César

 

[tbearatkin]

Might consider hooking up some car alternators up to be belt fed and charge up some batteries, then use a convertor(if available) to run the refrigerators. Of course this is not the site to discuss this but there are several out there. Good luck I have been following the situation for a couple years on another site where somebody had been documenting the changes and things people were having to do to survive.