Maestro
New member
- 2
- 0
- 1
- Location
- Doylestown, PA
Hello everyone,
First, I want to thank everyone here for this resource, I probably would not have bought this generator without having this knowledge base available. I never worked on a diesel motor so this part is new to me. I have a gas generator and work on gas engines all the time. Building a home in the country side which is prone to power outages during bad storms and can it take days and weeks to get powered restored. The plans it to use the MEP-803a as the whole house generator.
I hope someone can point me in the right directions. I recently bought a 2010 MEP-803a with 280hrs from GovPlanet, it was in great condition. Got it home last week and found it was completely mothballed, they pulled all the fluids, filters and batteries. Not sure if while draining fluids they broke the fittings off the main fuel pump or this was the reason it was put out to pasture. It could not be repaired, as everyone knows those original pumps can not be sourced anymore. I located a universal replacement 24v pump and got it working. I installed all new filters, loaded the generator up with all the necessary fluids and new batteries and tried to get it started.
The engine will turn over using the dead crank switch (S-10). When S-10 is in normal position and S-1 in Prime the pump will cycle for a period of time and stop. I verified the fuel made its way to all the necessary places. The first couple of time I tried starting from S-1 all I got was a click, like a large contractor closing almost like a starter solenoid, but it did not engage the starter. I also notice the low oil pressure light came on after turning S-1 back to the prime position and it would not do anything until I manually cleared the indicator. After doing this a couple times I decide to use the S-10 to crank over the engine for about 10 or 20 second after doing this a couple of time. The low oil pressure light stop coming on after turning S-1 to the start position, but I still get click sound and the starter does not engage. I looked at the relays, not sure of the designator since there are no labels, I can see the third relay from the left is activating when S-1 is turned to the start position.
The generator has been worked on in the past, the water pump has been repaired, all kind of RTV was used to seal it back up. S-1 was replaced at one point, see attached picture, someone labeled all the wires to make sure they returned to the correct locations. As best I can tell, they are correct, but I plan to verify the wire numbers against the useful chart that was share here. Also when I open the control panel for the first time, all the metal clips holding the relays in place were off. Not sure if they vibrated off or they were removed. I pulled all the relays and reinstalled them and replaced the retaining clip (not a great design). I also check J-7 and J-6 and those connectors were clean and could not see any corrosion as some people have reported. I was concern about this since this unit was came from Nation Guard Station in Alabama.
I hope I gave someone enough information to help me figure out what it the culprit here or where to look. I know the generator set has a number of fail safes and I am wondering if one of those is causing the problem.
TIA!!!!
First, I want to thank everyone here for this resource, I probably would not have bought this generator without having this knowledge base available. I never worked on a diesel motor so this part is new to me. I have a gas generator and work on gas engines all the time. Building a home in the country side which is prone to power outages during bad storms and can it take days and weeks to get powered restored. The plans it to use the MEP-803a as the whole house generator.
I hope someone can point me in the right directions. I recently bought a 2010 MEP-803a with 280hrs from GovPlanet, it was in great condition. Got it home last week and found it was completely mothballed, they pulled all the fluids, filters and batteries. Not sure if while draining fluids they broke the fittings off the main fuel pump or this was the reason it was put out to pasture. It could not be repaired, as everyone knows those original pumps can not be sourced anymore. I located a universal replacement 24v pump and got it working. I installed all new filters, loaded the generator up with all the necessary fluids and new batteries and tried to get it started.
The engine will turn over using the dead crank switch (S-10). When S-10 is in normal position and S-1 in Prime the pump will cycle for a period of time and stop. I verified the fuel made its way to all the necessary places. The first couple of time I tried starting from S-1 all I got was a click, like a large contractor closing almost like a starter solenoid, but it did not engage the starter. I also notice the low oil pressure light came on after turning S-1 back to the prime position and it would not do anything until I manually cleared the indicator. After doing this a couple times I decide to use the S-10 to crank over the engine for about 10 or 20 second after doing this a couple of time. The low oil pressure light stop coming on after turning S-1 to the start position, but I still get click sound and the starter does not engage. I looked at the relays, not sure of the designator since there are no labels, I can see the third relay from the left is activating when S-1 is turned to the start position.
The generator has been worked on in the past, the water pump has been repaired, all kind of RTV was used to seal it back up. S-1 was replaced at one point, see attached picture, someone labeled all the wires to make sure they returned to the correct locations. As best I can tell, they are correct, but I plan to verify the wire numbers against the useful chart that was share here. Also when I open the control panel for the first time, all the metal clips holding the relays in place were off. Not sure if they vibrated off or they were removed. I pulled all the relays and reinstalled them and replaced the retaining clip (not a great design). I also check J-7 and J-6 and those connectors were clean and could not see any corrosion as some people have reported. I was concern about this since this unit was came from Nation Guard Station in Alabama.
I hope I gave someone enough information to help me figure out what it the culprit here or where to look. I know the generator set has a number of fail safes and I am wondering if one of those is causing the problem.
TIA!!!!
