My first MEP

[RichWood]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and just bought my first surplus item through GL. The experience was quite favorable, nice guys and helpful loading etc. The item is a MEP-701A from 1989. It had issues, as expected. The most visible problem was the ASK panel that covers the battery / Fuel tank area. I hear they are often lost and my unit proves the case.

First order of business was to fire it up and look for other issues. The internal battery was stone dead and would not take a charge even overnight. I bridged 2x12V together on the floor and got it cranking. After some priming and patience, it spit a few times then went right up to RPM. Good voltage on the gen-head so it's a winner.

I ordered a brand new 4HN from a local battery house. The price was within $3 of the internet price so I shop locally when practical. It was going to take a few days to get so I started in fabricating a new cover.

I'm short a pair of the latches that hold the cover so I'll post a thread in Wanted...

Rich

 

[steelandcanvas]

Welcome to Green Iron Insanity! Good score, looks as though you have a winner!

 

[Wildchild467]

Very nice! I remeber when I brought my MEP-002A home and fired it up for the first time. I did all sorts of PM'ing before I cranked it over to fire it up. When it fired up it was music to my ears!

 

[RichWood]

MEP-701A Charging

After the unit would start and run reliably, I did some testing and the charging circuit was not putting out. I've done some reading of threads on this site and found lots of valuable tips (Thanks all...) The charging stator tested good (0.2 ohms and not shorted to ground). That left something inside to be addressed.

I tore the ASK off and took a quick look around. I highly recommend that everyone do this if so equiped. There were several issues that were hidden but needed to be addessed.

- Melting of the throttle cable jacket where it was touching the exhaust pipe.
- Broken exhaust pipe at the elbow.
- Chaffing of the oil cooler line on the fan shroud.

My goal was to get this unit back into original shape and to not have a latent issue that would break it down when I have no power in the shop and it's sitting outside ... I've attached some pictures and will go through what I learned. These machines are really neat. Overbuilt, quality, etc. Well worth the time it takes as long as all the major pieces are there.

 

[RichWood]

MEP-701 Charging

Here are a couple of tips, mostly specific to 016B / 701A owners, but maybe not. After the ASK, I pulled the frame off. I started clipping off the wire ties when I realized that if I pull the wires from the control box then the wires can stay with the frame. Oh well, wire ties are cheap. Taking the fuel tank off; I went to lift it and the drain cap was captive chained to the frame. Oops. Of course, the tank was nearly full and heavy. Hint: take the cap off first. I hand to reach for a screw driver while balancing the tank.

The muffler comes off pretty easily once you realize that the hose clamp needs to be loosened all the way. It's really a clamp with "V" shaped brackets.

There is one long bolt that goes through the fiberglass cover at about the 12:30 to 1:00 position. It's screw #5 on page 7-33 of the TM. Otherwise, all the 10 mm head bolts are around the case. The cover won't come off with the flywheel on but you can reach through the big hole and take out the 6 bolts to get the wheel off. It takes a 10mm - 12 point socket. Figure on an impact gun. They are pretty tight.

 

[RichWood]

MEP-701 Charging

With the flywheel off, I could see the issue. The magnets came unglued from the flywheel and two of them were broken in half. They were stuck to the stator and minding their business. Still, I can image that they could start to move around, get wedged and then do major damage at some point. Of course, that would be during the storm...

I took a marker and numbered and put an arrow on each so that I would not get some polarity wrong. The flywheel was rusty on the inside so that had to be cleaned down to shiny for the epoxy to stick. I measured the inside diameter to be 6.125. Each magnet was 0.325 thick. Measuring the stator and subtracting, the airgap is like 0.025; pretty close and the epoxy will take up some room.

I figured the best thing would be to turn down a disk that would hold the magnets, pressing into the epoxy so they would set and leave the minimum of glue build-up. The disk diameter worked out to be 5.475 so I made that out of a piece of fine grained particle board. To "dial in" the fit, I ended up with a two wraps of masking tape to give lots of pressure. About 1/3 of a tube of JB Weld later. it setup all night.

Next morning, it went back together with no magnets hitting. Phew... I welded the exhaust pipe carefully. The tubing is really thin and will blow through if you look at it wrong. It fired up right up. AC Charging voltage 40.9V & DC Charging 26.85V. It's a new battery so that may go up a bit more as it gets settled in.

Anyway, thanks to all on this site. I did lots of reading before I tore into this machine. Between the TM's posted and the past threads, it turned out to go straight forward.

Rich

 

[steelandcanvas]

Sweeet! You already have the TM's in hand and are starting to bring her back to top performance.

 

[chadande]

Excellent write up and pics. I have a similar low AC condition on the charging circuit and may attempt the disassembly / repair based on your info. Is your spacer available for rent should the magnets be my issue as well?

 

[RichWood]

I just sent you a PM on that topic. It took maybe 15 minutes to make. You can have it if you decide to go for it...

Enjoy,
Rich

 

[ETN550]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum and just bought my first surplus item through GL. The experience was quite favorable, nice guys and helpful loading etc. The item is a MEP-701A from 1989. It had issues, as expected. The most visible problem was the ASK panel that covers the battery / Fuel tank area. I hear they are often lost and my unit proves the case.

First order of business was to fire it up and look for other issues. The internal battery was stone dead and would not take a charge even overnight. I bridged 2x12V together on the floor and got it cranking. After some priming and patience, it spit a few times then went right up to RPM. Good voltage on the gen-head so it's a winner.

I ordered a brand new 4HN from a local battery house. The price was within $3 of the internet price so I shop locally when practical. It was going to take a few days to get so I started in fabricating a new cover.

I'm short a pair of the latches that hold the cover so I'll post a thread in Wanted...

Rich

Welcome to the MEP life! Good choice of unit too! Nice work on the fabrication of the replacement cover. Search McMaster Carr then search their website for "latches" and you will find the exact replacements for your unit. I have used their stainless steel ones for my replacements but have found the military ones to be regular steel in most cases. Usually, the latches on the hinged door go first. The 701-A has two sizes of latches and both are in the McMaster catalog. They ship real fast too.

Just read the rest of your posts. Your flex exhaust is supposed to be an orange high temp silicone hose. McMaster has the exact hose as well by the foot. The metal flex hose will only continue to fail due to vibration.

+1 on the teardown. When I pull frames I leave the wiring and leave the control box.

When you get it running again do the full governor / fuel linkage set up per the manual. It will run super crisp and be very responsive to load.

There are fuel filters available over the counter at Carquest. I need to find the numbers or you can search some posts.

 

[Isaac-1]

I agree great details there, very helpful

 

[RichWood]

Thanks guys for the feedback. I'll look for the filters so I can keep a couple in stock.

I tried to "pay back" the whole group here with the details (and avoid the dreaded "This thread is worhless..")

Rich