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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Generator not making elec.
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mattd
Member
# Posted: 26 Apr 2013 01:28pm
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I inherited a 3500w generator with less then an hour run time. Tested at home before going to property and it powered a small 1500w space heater on both the 120 and 240 (have an extension cord that ends in 120 outlets) outlets. Worked great. Got to property and it's not producing electricity.

I tested with my meter at the back of the 10amp breaker on the wires coming directly from the gen and got nothing.

Little online research talks about flashing by plugging in a corded drill and turning to recharge the brushes. No corded drill so I tried with an electric motor. I could feel the slightest "buzz" in the motor when I turned the motors switch on with the gen running. So maybe it is getting something that the meter isn't reading.

Turns out The flashing was pointless because there are no brushes in this thing.

Any ideas what to test or what could be wrong?

Thanks,

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 26 Apr 2013 01:49pm - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
Reply 


Yes, it relies in residual magnetism to tickle it or create a small amount of electricity, then it will make its own from that. Unplug everything from it and when its running, can you manually throttle it up, ie snap the throttle a few times to bring it above its normal run speed? That will usually do it. Or put a real strong magnet over the end of the generator shaft to induce some magnetism into the rotor (armature/dynamo)

Flashing is important, brushless or not depending on the design.

ICC
Member
# Posted: 26 Apr 2013 02:17pm
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it is also possible that it is beyond hope because it sat so long and never run. I've seen that happen when the genset has sat for years; had it happen myself to one i was given but didn't need. when i did go to try it all it made was noise. the engine ended up being used on a pump.

sparky1
Member
# Posted: 26 Apr 2013 03:55pm
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are you sure it doesn't have resettable circuit breaker?. on it somewhere since it worked at home?

mattd
Member
# Posted: 28 Apr 2013 12:41am
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I rev'ed it up with everything unplugged a few times and nothing. The on board meter does look like its moving more then before. Was getting up to the first tick mark when I rev'ed it. There is a circuit breaker. It's in the on position. Guess it could be bad, but I tested w a multimeter and read no voltage coming into the breaker.

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