Puppeteer

Author Topic: Chinese Factory Fubar  (Read 2781 times)

COMMANDER

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Chinese Factory Fubar
« on: January 03, 2013, 07:38:30 PM »
Please take this as a cautionary tale. 

I was exchanging the inferior doghouse on my ST-12 (because we all know how SUB-STANDARD it is). The bright idea dawned on me during Sandy, when I operated the generator for 5 days straight.  I noticed that when a substantial load such as the fridge came on, there would be an arc in the doghouse for a moment. This could be seen and heard! There was a loose connection, which was temporarily remedied. If you spend some time in that doghouse, you will notice the quality of the hardware is poor. So off it came.

The interesting part was when I examined the wires, and their origins. On the yellow insulator board, wire F1 and F2R were fed through the Z1 Z2 marked holes. Consequently, the F1 and F2R wires went through the Z1 Z2 marked hole. This became clear to me when I was assembling a new doghouse.  The wires from the brushes are F1 and F2R. Easy enough to trace.

Please Look for the origin of the wires even though you may assume they labeled it right.

Quote
Forgive, but never forget


Quinnf

  • Rest in peace
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 645
    • View Profile
Re: Chinese Factory Fubar
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2013, 09:34:14 PM »
But be careful what you're calling the "origin."  If your genny has little metal tags crimped to each lead with the supposed identity of the lead stamped on it, then, in the words of Ronaldus Magnus, "Old Russian Proverb:  Trust but Verify." 

Just learned that one while replacing the doghouse on one of my ST5s with an 8x8 plastic connection box in the lid of which I set a 120V/20A duplex receptacle and a 30A L14-30R receptacle that I now use to connect to the manual transfer switch.  As I disconnected each lead from the yellow terminal board I labeled it with marker pen on masking tape wrapped around each wire.   Then, once the old doghouse was where it belonged (in the trash can), I fed the wires through the bottom of the new box and (forgive me while I wax poetic):

What to my wondering eyes should appear,
But little metal tags crimped to the leads
That I hadn't seen before!"


I looked at the tags and found that the numbers on them bore no relationship to where they had been connected on the yellow board.  That had me scratching my head for a while.  I finally ran that by George and he confirmed that although the leads may be marked that way, they are frequently mis-marked, so do your own investigation.  I did so, tracing them visually and with a multimeter.

q.
Ashwamegh 6/1, PowerSolutions 6/1 "Kit" engine, and a Changfa R175a that looks like a Yanmar I once knew

COMMANDER

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
    • View Profile
Re: Chinese Factory Fubar
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2013, 01:31:05 AM »
Sounds like they were built in the same village. Alas the were no crimped markers on mine (one less thing to confuse me).

Thankfully, the ST's are pretty simple.