Offer on broken MEP-003a need advice...

[subternal]

Hi everyone,

Im new to the forum, well at least new to posting..

Ive been looking into military gensets for quite some time now. 1) cause Im prior service, and 2) cause the stuff is rock solid! Anyway trying to make a long story short. My knowledge of these generators is somewhat limited, I understand the dynamics of generators, motors and electricity at a novice level. So I recently had someone offer the sale of a broken MEP-003a for sale for $1200. I thought that may have been a bit high even working. Now what I was told about this, since I haven't yet seen it in person, was that the engine/motor starts up with no problem, what the problem was that one leg of the generator was only producing 30v where the other was producing 60v. I know this is alot or I should say alittle amount of information to provide without actually diggin in to one of these machines. I have been trying to get my hands on one of these for a while, but the offers on Ebay where ridiculous ($2500-4000!!!). This particular one has about 2000 hours on it. So my question basically is, does anyone think this is a deal at all??? If not what would be a better offer?

I know the limited amount of info is simply that. But I was just throwing the question out there to see if anyone may actually know the problem (or possibility) or has even better, encountered it before and may know what is involved in the fix. Bottom line is if I got this for the right price would it be worth it.

Any info anyone can provide I would be greatful. Thanks again...

 

[AceHigh]

Sounds like it is not a good deal to me. I would keep looking. I bought my working 003 for less than half that on a trailer.

 

[PeterD]

Agreed, keep looking, as the problem could well be that the head is bad. You'd need to do some extensive testing to determine that the head is good, and that the problem is in the associated wiring. If they are willing to sell for much less, it might be worth it as a learning experience, but I don't see it as valuable at this time with that kind of a problem.

 

[porkysplace]

Search is your friend .
What should a MEP-002a / MEP-003a be worth?
MEP Generator values?
Latest Gen sales on Gl..
Last lot of MEP-Generators on GL
Gensets from GL today

 

[Speddmon]

Tell the guy it's worthless because it's not working, and it could possibly be economically non-repairable. That's not a lie because if it needs a gen head rewind, that's going to be expensive.

Now comes the other part of the story. IF you are mechanically inclined, we can help you troubleshoot the electrical part and figure out what is wrong with it, and possibly fix it. Offer the guy $250 or so (that would be around scrap price). If it turns out you cannot fix it, scrap it/part it out, and all you are out is some time and maybe a little bit in parts. If you can fix it, you got a good deal. The owner is out nothing, because if he can't fix it, scrap price is all he's going to get for it, unless he parts it out. And with the number of complete engines floating around out there, engine parts are not terribly expensive, so he's still not gonna get much.

Just my

 

[Ken_86gt]

As stated above, it is not worth much except as scrap in the current condition. Now if the seller were to fix it- it would be worth it. The ones on e* are primarily people trying to make money off the ones that they bought from GL for half the price. You could take the chance on GL for about 1200, I would rather buy from GL than buy the one you are looking at.

 

[subternal]

Tell the guy it's worthless because it's not working, and it could possibly be economically non-repairable. That's not a lie because if it needs a gen head rewind, that's going to be expensive.

Now comes the other part of the story. IF you are mechanically inclined, we can help you troubleshoot the electrical part and figure out what is wrong with it, and possibly fix it. Offer the guy $250 or so (that would be around scrap price). If it turns out you cannot fix it, scrap it/part it out, and all you are out is some time and maybe a little bit in parts. If you can fix it, you got a good deal. The owner is out nothing, because if he can't fix it, scrap price is all he's going to get for it, unless he parts it out. And with the number of complete engines floating around out there, engine parts are not terribly expensive, so he's still not gonna get much.

Just my

Hmmm....interesting. I would consider myself very mechanically inclined. And for the appropriate price in parts I wouldn't mind getting b@lls deep into something like that. I will throw that offer out there and see what I get

As stated above, it is not worth much except as scrap in the current condition. Now if the seller were to fix it- it would be worth it. The ones on e* are primarily people trying to make money off the ones that they bought from GL for half the price. You could take the chance on GL for about 1200, I would rather buy from GL than buy the one you are looking at.

Ive looked on there (GL) and it looks like an auction in my area (ft. meade) is comming up soon, I guess I will see what my chances are there...

Search is your friend .
What should a MEP-002a / MEP-003a be worth?
MEP Generator values?
Latest Gen sales on Gl..
Last lot of MEP-Generators on GL
Gensets from GL today

Yeah already beat ya to the punch!! but yeah I checked out most of those postings....interesting read. I still cant believe the difference in prices that some people are trying to get...but thanks for the links..

Agreed, keep looking, as the problem could well be that the head is bad. You'd need to do some extensive testing to determine that the head is good, and that the problem is in the associated wiring. If they are willing to sell for much less, it might be worth it as a learning experience, but I don't see it as valuable at this time with that kind of a problem.

hmmm...noted.

Sounds like it is not a good deal to me. I would keep looking. I bought my working 003 for less than half that on a trailer.

WHERE?!??!? from WHO?!?!?! where are these people at...please send them my way. On a serious note though, I have not been able to track anyone down that advertises them at that price...the cheapest I've found so far is 1200 and broken... But I will definitely keep my eye out




To everyone; I appreciate the quick response and the extremely useful and helpful info. Can anyone explain the resoning behind the possible problem? (1 leg 30v the other 60v)??? I know I can research manuals which I intend to, but its cool to have someone explain it sometimes... I know its difficult to judge what the problem is without empirical data but an educated guess is sometimes better than a shot in the dark...anyway thanks again...

 

[Isaac-1]

Without knowing exactly where he did the measurement and which mode the reconnection switch was in that reading does not really tell us much. If it were in 120/240 split single phase mode then the fact that one voltage and the reading was line to line vs line to neutral, then the fact that one reading is half of the other is a good sign. The cheapest thing that it might be is a bad diode or two in the exciter rectifier bridge, repair cost probably around $10 and probably less than an hour worth of work. Probably the next cheapest thing would be a bad voltage regulator, these can be very hard to find replacements for, but thankfully are generally repairable by any electronics technician, or really anyone that can halfway handle a soldering iron. On the other end of the spectrum it may be a burned out winding in the generator end, and that would likely make it so it is not economical to repair.

Ike

 

[n1oty]

As for Fort Meade, I suspect genny prices may spike in the next couple of auctions after that recent, long power outage.

John

 

[subternal]

Without knowing exactly where he did the measurement and which mode the reconnection switch was in that reading does not really tell us much. If it were in 120/240 split single phase mode then the fact that one voltage and the reading was line to line vs line to neutral, then the fact that one reading is half of the other is a good sign. The cheapest thing that it might be is a bad diode or two in the exciter rectifier bridge, repair cost probably around $10 and probably less than an hour worth of work. Probably the next cheapest thing would be a bad voltage regulator, these can be very hard to find replacements for, but thankfully are generally repairable by any electronics technician, or really anyone that can halfway handle a soldering iron. On the other end of the spectrum it may be a burned out winding in the generator end, and that would likely make it so it is not economical to repair.

Ike

economical to repair but what about replace especially with you use part would that be a more viable option or possibility?

 

[Isaac-1]

Sorry I don't understand the question there

 

[Speddmon]

economical to repair but what about replace especially with you use part would that be a more viable option or possibility?

Are you asking about the possibility of replacing the entire head if it came to that? If so, yes it could be done...cheaply???? I don't know the answer to that question. I had a spare and I traded it for some cool stuff, but I can tell you this much, if I still had it to sell, it would not go cheap.

There have been several members who have had issues with just bad connections on the main reconnection switch, or the main breaker causing strange voltage issues. It could possibly be something that minor is worng with it

 

[Isaac-1]

The big problem with buying a replacement generator end is that it often comes off a generator that has a bad engine so is itself an untested item. There was a member either here or over on the Smokstak board that tried to repair a 10KW MEP-018 a while back, and I think he went through 3 generator ends at considerable expense without getting a good one.

 

[subternal]

sorry, yes I meant would replacing it with used parts. I mean from what I have read here and on smokestak, it doesnt seem like it would be a cheap option either. Again Im looking for affordable, and I assume cheap would not be probable. I get that there is no way to tell what the issue could be, Im just looking for options...but thanks again...