I did a favour for friend and took away junk, but it ran well..... A 4 stroke generator, KG1200A It's a bit shakey... pieces coming apart... I'll secure it before starting.... Just wondering....... can you get electruted mucking around with these..... But it's a nice fathers day present........... thanks Do we do these on ODK? Hope you all have a good fathers day if it applies..... cheers speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Well, the simple answer is yes especially if you are very careless as 230-250 VAC is present when it is running. It not as much as voltage as it is the amount of current available to push that voltage. I work on homemade linear RF and amplifiers and once I received 3rd burns on my finger tips from a capacitor that didn't have safety bleeders installed. Even through I bleed the capacitor it some how it recharged even with the power off providing me a sever shock across my hand. Close to 2000 vdc was present. Must had been another hide capacitor in the circuit. Believe me when the amp left it had those safeties installed as I didn't want an other tech getting electrocuted.
Once you use common sense and carefully work you should be fine but I do highly recommend knowing what you are doing when with anything electrical generator. Briggs has a couple service manuals pertaining to portable generators that give you a good prime on these.
As the Kaslon KG1200A you should find the IPL and wiring diagram if you plan on repairing this unit. It should give us a good which alternator setup you have in it. You may need to flash the alternator but that depends on the setup. I can't read the label in your image but it appears to a small wattage version. I usually see 5000 - 20,000 watts units occasionally in my shop. The larger units requires me to use a crane to move them around by myself.
I would need to PM you the SM links that I have on my Google drive if you would like copies to look at. They are just educational materials since they don't refer to your specific generator but they will provide a good working knowledge base. Just let me if you want them.
Hi Speedy Didn't know the chinese made a 4 stroke version of this style.
I have one of the 2 stroke versions of that generator - a GMC 850W. AVB would probably know them as the Harbour Freight Tailgator.
Have to agree exactly with what AVB has said - I got 240v once through a vintage Horse and carriage ornament whilst repairing the clockwork music box and electric light. I don't exactly remember what happened, but ended up with bad electrical burns - I am told I blacked out for about 15 seconds. No RCD either
Just use common sense and err on the side of caution.
Most of the manufacturers of these recomend an earth rod - normally a fitting on the generator side
My mate welded the fuel tank bracket and I painted and installed yesterday, put it all toghether. It ran and I stopped and started a few times, let it run. It's a pretty easy starter. I plugged in a 240V lamp to the 240v outlet and pressed the reset button when it was going, no current... I tested the 12 v outlet with a multimeter and no current...... There looks to be and earth bolt on the side... Does this need to be earthed to use the generator...? I am not going to play with electricity............. What to do with it.....?? speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
If you would like to have a play with electricity and I have in the past made this 3 globe field flashing generator device, it re-energizes a generator that has sat around too long .
Residual magnetism in the generator exciter field allows the generator to build up voltage during start-up. This magnetism is sometimes lost due to shelf time or improper operation, among other reasons. Restoring this residual magnetism is possible and is sometimes referred to as "flashing the exciter field".
If the alternator has an AVR and rotor has two slip rings. Then you disconnect the brushes, connect a 12v battery to the brushes, and start the generator. Check for your normal output voltage. If not present then the either the rotor or the fields is bad. If the voltage is present run for a few minutes and shutdown. After shutting it down remove the battery, reconnect the brushes, and then restart the generator provide it was outputting the correct voltage. If now there is no voltage then the AVR is dead.
Now there capacitor driven model out there too.
If needed I can post a link to the Briggs basic generator training manual that has very information on troubleshooting portable generators.
Thanks Max and AVB, I had a few other straigh forward jobs to do , and be in right mind to play with electricity. I tried the drill method today. The motor runs well now, even thoughthe starter has been removed so I start it with a drill or rope. Its good to run the engine anyway.... I connected the drills together so I could put some charge in the generator..... Tried forward and reverse on both drills....with the 240v drill plugged in the the gen. No results. I noticed the reset switches for 12v and 240v didn't work properly, and both were on at the same time. Maybe this didn't help, so i disconnected the 12v push button reset switch. The 240v push button switch seems to be stuck on..... I'll try it again. It's getting too confusing.....
A wise little lady said, here put this in the scrap metal....... cheers speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Here is link to couple generator familiarization and troubleshooting manuals. They are from Briggs and Stratton but have very useful information on most generators.
Hi speedy, I tried the drill method years ago and that did not work for me either but the 3 globes worked.
AVB has mentioned using a 12 volt battery and the troubleshooting manuals show this method but I prefer the 3 globes ,the globes flashing synchronization changes when the generator starts to work, so the 3 globe method works even when the capacitor that stores current for the generator windings is not working.
Max, it depends if Speedy has a brushless or brush type. You do use your 3 globes method on Brushless (capacitor excitation system) generators but the battery setup is used on Brush type. There is no mention of the 3 globes method on the Brush type in above manuals.
Speedy also needs to test rotor the correct continuity as if it is open or shorted; no matter which method is needed to re-magnetize rotor, it will not work.
I have a Honda genset here that my father bought second hand in 1990 when he was building his new house.My son, he is a electrician, said back then that there was something wrong with it because it wouldn't do something, can't remember what the problem was. It has sat around since then and I started it about 18 months ago and it was strong enough to start two 9 inch grinders at once, so it hasn't lost its magnetism obviously.
Probably the best idea speedy, you can end up spending buckets of hours messing with this sort of stuff and then you will still struggle to get fifty bucks for it
