Old two cylinder generator value.

[Hopefuldave]

Sorry Fred you’ll have to excuse my ignorance.

Puncture the windings? You mean the insulation breaking down?

SOL? Significantly out of luck?

Pretty damn good shooting there, hit the bull...
I warmed up the windings on my lathe's motor (after it had been in the damp for a year or so) by connecting a 12v battery charger to 'em through a headlamp bulb (to limit to 5A), left it for a few days until it was quite warm to the touch, had no problems with earth lakage after that.

 

[GRW]

SR2 will only be about 5-6kva, but such a heavy flywheel they can punch above their weight for motor starts.
Unlikely you could fit a starter, as there's Unlikely to be any ring gear on the flywheel, as most of these engines in S-O-M, AMF, Remote Start or just electric Start.... used a Brush Alternator with a Start winding (24v). No-one does those any more (the last of the S series around 1982/3 had conventional starters, & the T series that superceded the S were regular starter motors.

These things will run and sound fine even when utterly clapped out, and if it did 20-40 years as a prime power source - then it's done Starship running hours.
You haven't a hope in hell of hand cranking a fit motor without both cylinder decompresser levers used. If you can swing it without decompressing the cyls...... its clapped.

Fantastic robust engines, usually really well insulated (carbon brush) alternators fitted, and lots of parts availability for the engine. Check the brush slip rings/commutators though - if it's been run with worn out brushes, the brush holder edges chew through the slip rings & wreck the rotor.

 

[Memmeddu]

From what I'm reading in this thread it has only historical value for someone.
Practically wise... It's heavy, with low power output related to it's weight, it's surely not the best thing to use when in need of a power generator.
An honda GX or a Kohler engine generator would be lighter,more capable, easier to maintain, cheaper to run and more compact.
I'd skip on it... Unless you aim to have something of this type for just the spirit of conservation of old tooling and equipment

 

[Jack_K]

I am looking for something just like it at a low price but I am in Australia.

It would be valuable to me as I have a use for it which is relatively low hours. I would use it for an off grid location that is only used a couple of weeks a year. Currently we rely on flathead Briggs powered generators which are very far from fuel efficient. We have started to run air conditioners so now we need something that can run those for hours without stopping (and use less fuel than a Briggs).

I would still only pay under $500 AUD and just maybe a bit more if I knew it was a good running generator with electric start.

 

[GRW]

I am looking for something just like it at a low price but I am in Australia.

It would be valuable to me as I have a use for it which is relatively low hours. I would use it for an off grid location that is only used a couple of weeks a year. Currently we rely on flathead Briggs powered generators which are very far from fuel efficient. We have started to run air conditioners so now we need something that can run those for hours without stopping (and use less fuel than a Briggs).

I would still only pay under $500 AUD and just maybe a bit more if I knew it was a good running generator with electric start.

These things are robust beasts (REALLY robust) and also very very good on fuel - that heavy flywheel also means that on low loads its inertia means it sips fuel.
The newer TS2 was rated at 2.1L/Hr at 75% load (about 5kw), but at lower loads way less than that.
There used to be loads of these installed as backups in public buildings from the 60's & 70's - brilliant buys for off-grid as they'd only done a handful of hours.
Hard to find now though

 

[Martin Hocking]

Thanks everyone I knew there’s be people who’d know something about it on here.

The big flywheel explains how my boss was able to run his electric shower off during power cuts once he got connected to the mains. Obviously rather grunty.

I told him when it was made and he chuckled and said “It obviously didn’t last that long as an on hire machine before the (un pc term for members of the travelling community) laid eyes on it!”
That would explain why it’s orange!

 

[Martin Hocking]

Well we started it….




Seems to work perfectly after clearing its throat. It does take a bit of a crank to get it going once you kick in full compression and I couldn’t get the handle off on first attempt which led to a bit of panic!
But once we put a bit of oil on the crank handle to help it slip off, it boiled the kettle no trouble.

I took a video but I can’t get my head around putting it up on YouTube to post it here.

I’d just like to point out that I did try and relay the things that people have pointed out like warming the windings and potential engine issues, but the chap I work for is hands down the most impatient person I’ve ever met and he said that life’s too short to Jeff about doing things like that!

Thanks a lot for all the advice though!

 

[OJCar]

Now it works its worth ten times what it was worth yesterday !

 

[Erie Fred]

From what I'm reading in this thread it has only historical value for someone.
Practically wise... It's heavy, with low power output related to it's weight, it's surely not the best thing to use when in need of a power generator.
An honda GX or a Kohler engine generator would be lighter,more capable, easier to maintain, cheaper to run and more compact.
I'd skip on it... Unless you aim to have something of this type for just the spirit of conservation of old tooling and equipment

Your thinking "portable" ??
Installed in/next to a garage for when the mains goes out in a storm is a different equation.

 

[GRW]

Your thinking "portable" ??
Installed in/next to a garage for when the mains goes out in a storm is a different equation.

Spot on. I'd love to find an affordable good one (1ph, most are 3ph and only 4-wire so not reconfigurable) for my folks place. Being able to fire up a solid lump like that, with practical certainty that it'd run as long as you needed it to without issue, economically - well worth providing one with some house room in an outbuilding.

 

[Bornfree]

I don't think it happens with the twin cylinder one's but the single cylinder will sometimes kick back when starting and run backwards. That means the crank handle is being driven at 1500rpm until it flies off the shaft. Time to run when it happens.

 

[GRW]

I don't think it happens with the twin cylinder one's but the single cylinder will sometimes kick back when starting and run backwards. That means the crank handle is being driven at 1500rpm until it flies off the shaft. Time to run when it happens.

I saw one snag on a twin once (it started & ran the right way, but there was no grease & lots of dirt on the handle shaft).
I was on a big cement mixer, in the centre of a new small housing complex maybe 40-years-ago.
When the handle finally worked its way off, the thing flew about 80 feet through the air, clearing the roof of a newly built house about 150 feet away!
If it had been on a lower trajectory, I think the handle might well have gone through the walls

 

[Memmeddu]

Spot on. I'd love to find an affordable good one (1ph, most are 3ph and only 4-wire so not reconfigurable) for my folks place. Being able to fire up a solid lump like that, with practical certainty that it'd run as long as you needed it to without issue, economically - well worth providing one with some house room in an outbuilding.

4 wires ... how many you want?
Neutral L1 L2 L3 ,4 wires
PE isn't even required most of the times with a power generator.
Because they are practically ground insulated.
If you connect the neutral to the ground now you need PE , because voltage can go across a phase and ground passing through you

 

[Bornfree]

4 wires ... how many you want?
Neutral L1 L2 L3 ,4 wires
PE isn't even required most of the times with a power generator.
Because they are practically ground insulated.
If you connect the neutral to the ground now you need PE , because voltage can go across a phase and ground passing through you

You want a 12 wire alternator

 

[OJCar]

I don't think it happens with the twin cylinder one's but the single cylinder will sometimes kick back when starting and run backwards. That means the crank handle is being driven at 1500rpm until it flies off the shaft. Time to run when it happens.

I have an Lister ST1 somewhere in the Shed of Disappointment,
very happy to watch someone else try and start that bastard backwards.
In fact if someone was to cross my palm with silver ( notes also accepted ) and the Lister ST1 boat engine could be theirs !



There is also a BMW D7 diesel boat engine looking for a new home in there somewhere.
( @James1979 to the Batphone please )

 

[roofman]

Any genny that boils a kettle without moaning is a good one in my books, these inverter types start crying like a public schoolboy in a fight when introduced to a kettle.

 

[Erie Fred]

Any genny that boils a kettle without moaning is a good one in my books, these inverter types start crying like a public schoolboy in a fight when introduced to a kettle.

You can always set the kettle on top of the engine.....

 

[roofman]

You can always set the kettle on top of the engine.....

I want to like this post BUT your getting nothing

 

[Martin Hocking]

I saw one snag on a twin once (it started & ran the right way, but there was no grease & lots of dirt on the handle shaft).
I was on a big cement mixer, in the centre of a new small housing complex maybe 40-years-ago.
When the handle finally worked its way off, the thing flew about 80 feet through the air, clearing the roof of a newly built house about 150 feet away!
If it had been on a lower trajectory, I think the handle might well have gone through the walls

This was exactly what happened on first start up years of crud wouldn’t let me pull the handle off.

Robert the guy I work for might be impatient enough to walk away from a trolley full of shopping if there’s a queue at the supermarket but he has a lot more common sense than me!
I sort stood and looked at the crank handle start to speed up thinking ‘oh what happens now…’ Robert shouts ‘off off off!’ and practically dives on the throttle bit on the side of the engine!

 

[Hopefuldave]

You can always set the kettle on top of the engine.....

Some on here could boil a kettle on their heads - thinking too hard, if you ask me.