mep 003a high hertz and surging

[willie1982]

Hello Everyone, I'm a new member and i wish i'd found this site sooner. I purchased a mep 003a about 2 years ago. I use it to power a large air conditioner in my shop and recently i fired it up and the hertz meter is pegged and the voltage was 180 and rising on the front outlets. I shut it off and disconnected the a/c unit. I then restarted it and flashed it. Now it makes power for about 5 seconds on and off and buries the load guage. IS the regulator to blame and does anyone on here sell parts for this machine? Thank you

 

[Speddmon]

If it is pegging the load meter, I think it is about time for you to start going some generator head inspection and testing. Should show absolutely NO load with nothing connected to it.

 

[willie1982]

yep

it is pegging the load guage back and forth every 5 seconds or so. I can run a sawzall for a couple seconds then the vlotage drops

 

[storeman]

Golly,
I wish I knew as much about this as Speddmon. I wouldn't have to refer so many people to him.
Jerry

 

[mistaken1]

If you have not already done so please go here to download the manuals for your generator.

There are some nice troubleshooting sections that should help.

http://www.steelsoldiers.com/generator-electrical-tms/77624-tms-generators.html

PS Welcome to the site!

 

[Speddmon]

it is pegging the load guage back and forth every 5 seconds or so. I can run a sawzall for a couple seconds then the vlotage drops

When the load meter is getting pegged, do you hear the engine change tone and start to load down like it really has a load on it???

 

[willie1982]

yes

It sounds like the engine is loading down. I tried to go through the troubleshooting but, had a hard time figuring it out. thanks for all your help

 

[Speddmon]

If it sounds like the engine is loading down then you definitely have a short somewhere in the generator. From the sound of it, it is just an intermittent one as it's coming and going every fer seconds. It could be in the output box, but more than likely it's something in the generator head.

 

[willie1982]

is that something like a wire rubbed or mouse chewed on something or is it more advanced then that

 

[Speddmon]

It could be that simple, or it could mean a complete generator head rewind. Only some troubleshooting and testing will determine the truth

 

[willie1982]

how should i start?

 

[Speddmon]

The easiest place to start is by taking the two large plugs off of the back of your output box. These are the ones with the generator head leads. Then, meter each large lead to ground. The only only one that should read a ground is the actual ground. The TM has resistance values in it, I believe for the actual coils. So after you check for grounds, you can meter each coil and compare it to the values that the TM says they should be. After that you'll need some more specialized electrical test equipment to check farther.

If you happen to have a spare output box lying around, you can hook it up and see if the problem is truely in the head or the box itself.