Sorry that this isn't about a lister but I am not sure who to ask.

I have a Hobart gen/AC welder. 4500watt I think the AC welder is 160 or 180 amp bought new around 1989
It has been sitting a while and when i started it only about 2 volts are produced.
I read somewhere that after sitting a while the field needs to be  re-excited, so i hooked up two different drill (I read to do this some where on the internet) with the gen running  and turned them with a battery powered drill to push power into the gen. I ran them clockwise, counterclockwise, and I flipped the reverse/forward switch on the AC drill, while holding the the trigger down on the AC drill.  Still nothing.

I looked under the panel with the receptacles on it, but I don't see any bad wires. There are no fuses or reset switches only a disk thingy with three wires going to it some of which look like they are coming for the outside coil. I didn't remove the cover off the welder part, because the gasoline tank is bolted to it.

But the main thing that puzzles me (not hard for me to do) is when my DMM is set the diode test it beeps showing a connection when hooked to the "hot" contacts in the receptacle (not the ground) and to the side of the machine.

Tomorrow the I will try a 175 watt inverter to excite the coil if no luck maybe 110 from the wall which I am wonder if it will smoke something (Like me) 

Any Ideas? Make a Good Boat anchor?

Thanks greatly Justin