Hi, and I have lots of questions....

[Dualfuel]

I have this Kohler and I had it working. It no longer has power to the brushes.

I would like to know more about this machine.

Where can I get old Kohler generator parts?

I have poked around in Gardner's website and found a generator head that looks similar to mine...as close I could come yet.

I would like to read either a general manual or a tutorial about the various types of generators. Is that something I could find here?



I have been toying with buying this generator for years. I believe its 15kw. Its both propane and gasoline.



Its a newly refurbished machine that has never been started




I hesitate to buy it because I am not sure how hard it is to get parts for the old bird. Have you guys any idea about parts availability for something like this?

DF

[Dualfuel]

This is probably a bob g question judging from what I have read so far....
In the picture is a Delco 10si set up for use with an International engine. I have been wondering if its possible to hook these alternators up in series? Lets say I have three 37amp 10si's. Could they be wired in series so they charge at 36volts? I remember from my army days, the CUCVs had something like this, two 27SI's hooked in series to allow the 12volt truck to jump start a 24 volt truck. I am fuzzy about how they did it.

I suppose you have to have a reason for this...I would like to have a portable batttery charger for the golf cart. Also I use the golf cart for small welding jobs and would like to be able to augment its batteries with the 10SIs.

Why in series....because I have a bin full of 10SIs. If I didn't have to modify them, then I could just replace them when they fail.

They way I was going to try it was to mount the alternators so that they don't share a ground and simply run the first one's output to the ground of the next one and so on.
I am not sure what to do about the field wire. Maybe a diode and line to each set of 12volt batteries.
Anyhow, this have probably been done a million times and you'd probably already know all about it.
DF

[Dualfuel]

 And there's more!
On the bench is a Homelite model 46A115-1B Serial#2265266 115v 13.1 amp generator. Originally it had a 4hp Briggs and Stratton engine. I got it because they did the dumb thing and ignored the oil level. It blew a rod. I was amazed to find that you cannot buy a connecting rod for an engine made in the '70s anymore. I was even more amazed to discover that a Kubota engine will bolt right up to the generator head...I did that and off I went for a year.
We had a big storm back in November that blew out a window in the basement and soaked down the generator. It stopped charging. I looked inside and it has a capacitor that either rotted off or exploded (dunno, am not CSI). I would really like this machine running again as it powered the mortar mixer in the summer.
Where can I find a Homelite schematic OR, maybe youse here can walk me through identifying what type of generator head it is generally and I can diagnose what failed besides the capacitor?

The generator head looks like the one in this video.

I looked at Jack's Small Engines and they have many homelite parts breakdowns but either they don't have either a model 35 or 46 OR the labels don't match the models. Not sure
Its fun either way.
DF

[Dualfuel]

One more thing,
I have a newage generator head. I think its 8kw. The voltage regulator is missing. I powered the field with 36volts dc and got 120 volts out of it, so I am hopeful about it working. Can one get Newage parts? I think its a British make. Thing is heavier then a small block chevy engine.
DF

[Dualfuel]

Alrighty!
So I went after the Homelite today and sucessfully got it running and producing electricity. The meter showed 115 volts open circuit and 116vac with the hammer drill plugged in and spinning. Then, I plugged in a motor run capacitor of unknown capacitance and the OC voltage went to a steady 120vac. The drill made the generator produce 121vac.

Ok wunderbar! Fantastic! Except I have absolutely no idea what just happened. Last november after the deluge the generator gave an odd voltage 150vac. The inverter wouldn't accept it. Then it didn't do anything. I thought the capacitor falling apart had something to do with it but....it seems to produce 115vac without  a capacitor installed. Which brings this full circle back to me learning exactly what style generator this is and how it works. This is like the guy with the old car on the side of the road that stalled there 10 minutes after he left the driveway on a crisp fall morning. Then he fumes and fusses, wiggles some wires and it starts for him. He never knew that the engine had melted the ice off the venturi and gave him back his carburetor.





So this was a really really good place to do this today. This little space is an oasis of warmth and light in a world of swirling flakes. I was never more grateful then today working in my own little Innisfree.
BPJ

[ihavelotsoftoys]

It looks like the old kohler has a wisconsin V4 engine.  I am pretty sure you can find parts on ebay for it, but those engines were supposed to be very tuff.  I don't know much about the generator end.  I have an old Kohler 6.5RMY.  I have done nothing to it since 2000 when it was installed.  I bought it used.  There are also some old tractor websites that would help you with engine parts. 
Good luck with the old gems.  Sometimes new isn't always better. 

[SteveU.]

Hi here DF
On your Homelite generator you've just answered your own genration problem:
It got soaking wet. You had moisture bleeding off currents outside of the normal intended pathways. Now that it has had a l-o-n-g drying out time it works O.K. now.
Can't be trusted of course without at least a spray on insulation reseal. This is common to have to do. Especially in wet forests and maritime like climates like you live in.
Pictures show this whole unit is old and weathered so the bleed off points will be multiple. To do a thorough job you are going to have to pull, soft brush clean the output  coil windings on the insides insides that are clamped down behind the two pole shoe screws showing on the outer case barrel. Hand impact hammer these loose. Clean out and reseal for the inevitable found internal steel and iron rusts. For gen heads in as the manuals say "a condensing" (means daily air sweating and dripping off of everthing especially internal surfaces) types of environments this moisture surfaces sealing/insulating needs to be done even on the back sides of all of the clamped screwed connection points. Thicker voltage rated daubed on sealer the best here. Ditch out of any stupid split lock washers on any of the electical post connections. They will create and let in corrosion an let any spray sealer migrate in - both increase  resistance at this circut point driving UP circut voltages and that will force current bleeds not where you want them. Closed ring copper ends will self seal and motion fix fine just like a copper oil plug ring washer. AC electical guys will scream at this . . . but you also must seal all of the open  stranded wire ends. I crimp, then solder to do this. Just crimped and left open will not cut it. Again, good voltage rated daubled on sealer really the best here also.

Yep. Chage out any of the old capacitors for new if you can get them. These are known aging failure points especially in free air condensing moisture conditions.

Wife is now Saturday pulling on BOTH ears - gotta' go.

You slipped on your sign off initials man. Might want to edit this.
I'll PM mesage you later to see if you want me edit out a put up an open named cited link to some of your earlier duel fuel work from a couple of years ago.

All the best. Very good to see you still kicking A.
Regards
Steve Unruh

[Dualfuel]

Dear Steve,
It was astounding to read your post as I was just about to write to you too. I gotta say something outloud for all to read...William from Georgia sent me an excerpt from a summary you wrote about woodgas. I believe you were explaining things to a group of professionals who were capable of getting involved with it but simply had no exposure to it before. In that summary, you laid out various bars that have to be hurdled. The one golden shining rule that I took away from that was the difference between simply firing up your lawnmower with some kluged up producer and running your engine for thousands of hours. I believe in that, with all my heart. I believe you clearly illustrated what the bar is. What no one realizes is the kind of study, commitment, and stubborness it takes to even come close running something on gas for hours on end. Your comments have been the spur in my side for years now. When I am rodding down a bridge and muttering under my breath "I'll show them", well it you that I am meaning. Take it a good way because I knew you were right, and I merely a plebian.
I have done this so far.... I have run the same producer for 6 years, on two different DualFual Farmall tractors. Though the producer was designed for something a bit bigger then the 150cid IH engine, it still works well enough for me to start it in any weather (the colder the better), and cut wood. Last winter I cut over 60 cubic yards of slabs with no gasoline at all (couldn't afford it and the carb was plugged anyhow).  I taped, I rodded, I dumped out distillate, I cleaned spark plugs, I changed engine oil, I emptied ash bins, I poked soot, and at the end of the day, I became an artisan. I can tell by listening to it, what the engine and producer are doing. So taking what I know, now, I could describe in great detail what the next level should be like. I am proud of being able to run my machine on wood, but I am just a souped up lawmmower/kluge guy.
Recently, I came into several thousand cord of oak. So whether I like it or not, I am going to have to really lean forward and improve myself and my handiwork. I have the fuel, much of the technology, the time, and knowledge to go to the next level. I would like to approach dutch john's level of tidiness, Andy Schofield's machine work, wayne's reliabilty, Doug's academic knowledge, and keep my idealism. I am drivin on!
Anyhow, I will start cleaning up that homelite. I want to make a house for it and put it on a small sleigh.
gotta run,
BPJ
PS I don't give a crap who knows who I am anymore, as it seems not to matter.

[SteveU.]

Hi BrucePJ/DuelFuel
Well I just spent 20 minutes looking for the link I had put up about your Farmall woodgas fueled, tilt bed, buzz saw wood fuel processor. HA! Ha! So good, lost and buried somewhere here now down in a topic on the Producer Gas board.
Now up to FOUR different topics here on this General Discussion thread. Make's it hard for anyone to respond to any one without limiting interest in the others.
May I suggest you look over the HOME page at the catagory break-outs and split this one up by reposting separatly.
The Kohler system questions could go in a couple of different places. Yep. I'd need to see a wiring diagram. Some other fellows here are real good on these.
Same with the different Homelite system.
Your Delco alternator system would definatly go under Automotive alternators. MB, myself, and others put up a lot on these there already. Go for it I say. Give it a try. What you do already have has a 2-3 times advantage just by already having it versus having to pick 'n choose, decide, source, and aquire something different in my life experiences. Unless  . . .  you are going to be fixed building around old, obsolete, or a never get another one of a kind. 10SI's are common enough to still toast a few 'sperimentin'.  Need to isolate and split out the rotor/field coils circuts first. Easy nuts 'n bolts. Then? Cheap manual control? High dollar (couple hundred) E-Bay regulator control?
Woogdas discussions are down in the Fuels Alternatives on the Producer Gas Board. Lot of topics already set up. Or start a topic line of your own.
Ha! Ha! Glad to hear I've been a pain in the ass woodgas motivator.
You are being a bit modest though.
You are one of the woodgas DOers. Actually fueled and ran engines to work for purposes. Your in Iraq Toyota project tool truck. Your little bench top experiment system. Some kinda' in house? gasifier heater system?
You were smart on the tractor power unit to have stuck with one basic system refined to useability that will work for you, with your fuel woods, in your conditions and now to have logged many pounds of woodfuel consumed, hours and years of different in seasonal use. "Beware of the ONE gun man!" "He knows it very well"
Well  . . changing to a gasfication PITA oak woodfuel will certainly be stretching you up a caliber, eh?
Bruce you are a much better writer that I ever was. And I am getting unreadably muck worse now - my brain can no longer "see" to self edit - about ready to pull my writing plug for good now and go Cat Stevens on ya' all.
Your "My Time in Iraq" story you let MikeL post up on the D-O-W was the best literature written I've read out of that whole 10 year quagmire. Publishable quality.

Welcome here and please do participate more in the good lifeship MicroCoGen. You've as much to in the real world KISS lifesyle teach here, as you will ever Tech learn here. Fair exchange. That's the way a good world is supossed to work.
Regards
Steve Unruh

[mobile_bob]

been away for a while, back now

as for you question regarding stacking 3 of the delco's in series for 36volt charging, my recommendation would be ... don't do it.

they don't have isolated grounds, meaning you would have to provide isolated mounting for at least 2 of the three alternators... and then you would still have issues
with charge control.

far easier to use on alternator, and use it to do the charging, as outlined in the white paper... "high efficiency and high output alternators"  (i think i have that right, just scroll down the second page in the white papers section and you will find it.

again for the record, while i am a fan of delco's for automotive use, i am not a fan of them for offgrid use, there are better alternatives that are longer lived and easier to use in my opinion

bob g

[Dualfuel]

logging truck...

[Dualfuel]

sorry about the cryptic post above..I was trying to find out if the computer I am using will post attachments or what the problem is if not....The logging truck is what I did all of late May and June. It works well enough to load wood and carry it, but still needs more attention. The wood to be gathered is mostly oak tops, and is so abundant that I thought it prudent to not only get this truck running but another as well. Its 200 acres of ground to harvest, so I will be a while. I was all excited about plastics to gasoline, but in lieu of the insane abundance of Oak and Maple branches, I am moving back toward gas producers again...I frankly had no idea of the scale I was dealing with.
The big discovery that I think is of interest to the Microgen Crowd, is the concept of waste wood fuel to hydraulic (fluid) power. I was enamored with turning waste wood into electricity, but as I am discovering while harvesting this resource, hydraulics are more important then electricity for resource recovery.
What interests me is, a gas producer that fuels an engine/hydraulic pump. I have a good start for this, a Continental engine that was in a Clark fork lift. It has a Vickers hydraulic pump mounted  right on the block.
Anyhow, here is a shot of what I have to deal with....

[mobile_bob]

if it is a continental flathead engine, i am convinced it is the absolute best engine for experimental use for alternate fuels, wood gas especially.

i just don't think you can kill one of them, given even a bit of care and maintenance.

i used to maintain a fleet of hyster lifts with the f224 flatheads, they were run flat out in the gravel 16 hours a day, 5-6days a week for years. i have seen them run complete shifts low on water or out of water, very low on oil, caked in dirt, filters clogged and they just keep right on ticking away.

they seem to run just fine even with incredibly sloppy valve guides, and compression down to sub 50psi.

if i thought the end of the world was imminent i would build a bug out vehicle with a flathead continental in it! and if i were to power an engine with wood gas, i would surely want it to be either the 4 or 6 cyl continental flathead.

if that if what you have, i am convinced you have a huge leg up on the project.

bob g

[SteveU.]

Hi Guys
I am firmly convinced that what you do have instantly has a 2X to even 4X leg up on anything you would have to go out and source and aquire.
This applies to engines and fuels. Living Rural you really need to work with these leg ups. Living Rural you best gitt'er done resources IS collected up old equipments. I do a lot of walking aroung looking and thinking on my stuff; making do or doing with out, before I ever go Internet shopping. That takes NEW money with lots of Gov'Mint pocket traps, bleed away steps built in.
Great BPJ you have this close availble source of Natures very best stored solar energy. Heck and given 20-50 years it will even renew itself given some planting and thinning help. Renew itself by itself if just left alone in 50-100 years. Beats the heck out of a petroleum/plastics energy cycle no matter which of the sources theory's you suscribe to.
Ha! Ha! But the realities of actually turning those tree top, limbs and trunk cull sections into actual shaft power ain't free or easy at all. Bruce you are one of the always thinkin and willing to sweat your ideas busy worker bees and this is just right up your alley. Yep. You discover real quick that loggers ain't dumbasses at all. Be injury busted up, widow leaving deaded, or broke if you are layed back, thinking lazy, real quick!!

Ahhh. You goona find out with bugs and rot that most of this form of solar energy has a usable "shelf life", depending. Here PNW wetside unless underwater pond drowned that ends up being 3-4 years before you just have piles of wood mush and punk chunks. I never put more wood from upright alive down to ground level than  that. Production harvest clean up that ain't your choice. Maybe with your longer frozen year cycle you can streach out this usable downed wood time - but there WILL be a practical limit. It it is going to rot useable anyhow might as well let it do this in place without you having to invest all of the time and energy just to be shifting where this happens.

Mobile Bob please do not take this as critism at all. I've had four different inline flathead engines I used and maintained in my lifetime: an early 1950's Pontiac Chieftain straight eight; a mid-fiveties do anything (except do anythig fast) deep grunt Dodge pickup with a semi-automatic; an early 60's bathtub Rambler; and an old retired County three wheeled bucket loader used to scoop load dairy manure. It had the 40's/50's Continental flathead engine in it. Was an all manual power cable and clutch system. It was increadible fast to use - faster than any of the Oliver/JD/Ford hydraulics untill the 90's modern high pressure/volume systems. All of these were engine easy to work on and as you say spit on easy to keep up and running. All gasoline fueled. Oh and more than a few Case flathead manure scraping tractors. Thier last working jobs before the rust in place retirement display rows. ANY later better overhead valve equivalent engine always got 30% better power and fuel use economy.
I've now done a fair amount of woodgas powering now with aircooled flathead engines versus overhead valve engines. It is the same loss for power and fuelwood consumed ecomomy - even more so. At least a 30%, more often a 40% difference.
Really, really helps to be able to get that bulky low energy woodgas fuel in and out of the cylinders with an overhead valve setup. Helps even more with woodgas to be working with 9/1 and higher compression base ratios versus 7/1 based compressions.

Anyhow Bruce your already owed 4X advantaged hydraulic pumping Continental flathead will work out fine as long as you will be satified with the lower working power when woodgassed and willing to process the extra woodfuel chunks to keep it fueled.
Ha! Ha! The wood stocks may be free for the hauling away - you personal time and energy to process it ain't.

Picture of our current owned free for the taking post harvest slash piles a dino fuel impossible 60 hauling miles away.
Then my from the house walk to, downed current fuel wood trees. These were downed for 4 years now and working on the last of these. Wood drying weather now for the next 60-90 days so off the keyboard now back out to sweating it.

Regards
Steve Unruh

[Dualfuel]

Thanks Bob, for the encouragement....I have had this F224 running in the past, its prolly stuck again. Buts its not a big deal to free it. Montes equipment in Chicago has parts for these too.

Steve, I don't have to worry about the wood rotting away as much as losing it when the bush grows back. right now there is no undergrowth and the skidders have brushed everything smooth... We just brought in a 2 full cord load of white (paper) birch that was left decked up. You are right, its wood drying weather, so even though I should be building a car to drive, I am going to be running a log splitter all afternoon so these wood sheds get full.
I do have another choice...I have a couple of 392 IH engines, one with a front shaft for a live hydraulic pump. You are right though, I do want go through all my saved treasure first before I buy new. Its kinda fun to follow through on this stuff.