Powermate Generator Not Making Power - Can it Be Fixed?

hey guys welcome back so today i brought home this 3 500 watt powermate generator and as you can tell by looking at it this generator has had a very rough life now the person selling this didn't say too much in the listing other than it has a good subaru engine and the generator head makes very little power so i didn't ask too many questions you know he was only asking 50 and that subaru engine is worth every penny of that so before just tearing that generator head off you know i do want to do a little bit of testing just to make sure that it is terminal so i'm going to get you set up a little bit better we'll check that oil real quick and i want to get it started see how little power it's making and then go from there yep plenty of oil for this test i have the light hooked up as well as the kilowatts so assuming we get some power that light should turn on and if it does we'll check what the voltage is on the kilowatt and then we'll try applying a fairly light load with that drill well the good news is the engine starts and it does sound healthy the stator on the other hand i was expecting low voltage output meaning maybe enough to turn the light on but not too bright but we got nothing so that generator head is not even trying to power up most likely it's terminal so let's get the gas out of the tank we'll get the tank out of the way and then we'll run some tests on that stator i wouldn't call this stuff fresh but it's not bad not quite so i filter it with a coffee filter mix it with fresh stuff and usually just burn it in my car sooner than later [Music] [Applause] so this here is what i'm after to do the tests that i need to do on this stator it's a quick disconnect and by removing it you're completely isolating the coils from this control panel and in order to get accurate readings you do need to isolate those coils or else the tests might be suspect in order to do these tests you will need a multimeter set to measure ohms and test the resistance of your meter by touching the leads together my case my meter comes in at 0.1 ohms so any readings i get i can subtract that from it to get the true value now this connector only has five pins and that makes sense because we have two legs and a ground wire and if you look at the colors here we have a green wire going to the center pin and then we have two black wires on this side and two white on that side so if i had to guess i'd say if we tested between a white and a black wire that would give us the reading for leg one and between these two leg two so let's give that a try and we get nothing there let's try the other white wire and we're at point six ohms which doesn't seem that bad point six point five and you subtract that point one it's closer to point four so that's actually pretty good let's try the other leg and it's the same so that actually looks pretty good now the next test we can do is to just check each leg to ground so i'll hook up to one of these black wires here and touch the other probe to ground there's no connection we'll just double check we're good and we'll check the other leg nothing to ground we're good and the other test i think we inadvertently did is to just check between the two coils to make sure there's not a connection so we'll just do that again just to make sure but we'll test between leg one black wire and leg two the black wire and there's no connection so it would actually seem that this stator is good now this is a low voltage test but it usually does catch major problems and i've actually never had a generator that doesn't make power that this didn't catch now i do have a high voltage tester we can pull that out if we need to but i'm fairly certain based on what i'm seeing here that this data is actually good and most likely we're dealing with an issue with the brushes or the bridge rectifier now there's no easy way to access them you actually have to remove these stator bolts to get this end cap off in order to access those things so i think that's the next step yeah i misspoke earlier you can actually test the brushes right here without removing this end cap so this cover here just pops out there's no fasteners holding it in and once it's out you have access to the brushes but i don't see any brushes well that is a problem i can say 100 without brushes this will not make power and not only does it not have brushes but the wires that the brushes connect to are missing so potentially that bridge rectifier is not present or the wires just fell in but clearly someone's been in here they removed the brushes if not the entire bridge rectifier itself so this end cover definitely has to come off if we have any chance of fixing this huh i didn't see this one coming usually these are brushed but in this case it is brushless if you look at the rotor there are no slip rings and instead we have a capacitor mounted down there so someone's definitely replaced it at some point judging by the electrical tape wrapped around it so i'm going to pull the rest of that tape off we'll separate that capacitor and we'll test the excitation winding make sure that's good and then we'll test that capacitor i don't know what the resistance should be on this but usually on an excitation winding it's between one and one and a half ohms and that's a little higher than i usually see but you know it might be okay on this one let's check it to ground no issues there and i'll check it to the other legs leg one and leg two testing the leg one no connection and like two no connection so it would seem that this coil is also good let's check that capacitor and there's the rating it is five microfarad plus or minus five percent now most likely this is discharged because it was connected to the coil but it's always a good idea to double check so i'm just going to short this out with the screwdriver to make sure and we're fine and that is a good capacitor we're at 4.97 microfarad which is pretty much perfect so i guess a minute ago i thought for sure i knew what the problem was when the brushes weren't there but now we know it's brushless the capacitor is good it seems like the excitation winding is good really the only thing left to test is the rotor and if that doesn't show anything i think i'm gonna have to break out the high voltage tester and finally we have the rotor these are kind of hard to test on a brushless generator because there are a few components in circuit in this case we have two varistors on either side and we have a diode you can just see it right there it is black so it's kind of hard to see but this is one of the wires going into the diode and then about an inch in is where the other lead comes out now assuming all these components are good the resistance should be very high like in the millions if not infinite resistance so if we touch the probe leads on either leg of this diode we should get approximately the ohms reading that this coil is at so i don't know what the resistance should be but on brushless generators it's quite low i've seen them as low as 1 ohm and probably as high as 20 or 30 ohms so let's assume these components are good and see what the ohms are at 15.7 ohms that seems good there's no smoking gun on this powerhead so far everything has come back good really the next step would be to cut the diode out of circuit and test the diode because if the diode is not functioning as a diode then the rotor will not power up and it's not so logic would say let's cut the diode out but this rotor does not have permanent magnets so there is a chance it just lost magnetism and there's absolutely nothing wrong with anything so before i cut that out i think i should put it back together we'll start it again and try flashing the fields to see if we can't get this to power up but before i do that since i have everything open i'm going to get out the high voltage tester and just make doubly sure that all the insulation is good for these tests i'm going to use this insulation tester it can send voltages into the windings up to 5000 volts but for this test i'm just going to use the 500 volt range that's more than double what these coils will ever so i've got one lead connected to the bell housing down here just as a source of ground and the idea is i want to check each leg leg one leg two as well as the excitation winding and just make sure the resistance between the coil and the ground is very high so we'll check leg one first and we're already at 300 million ohms no issues there check leg 2. same thing there we're already at 300 million ohms and climbing so leg 2 is good now we'll check the excitation winding no issues there we're at 500 million ohms and climbing so there's no faults to ground let's check each coil to the adjacent coils i'm going to start by testing between leg 1 and leg 2. we're at 400 million ohms and climbing so that's good we'll check between leg 1 and the excitation no issue there we're already at 1200 million ohms so that's quite good now we'll do leg two to the excitation and now as she was there we're at 600 million ohms and climbing so there is no insulation failure in the stator let's check the rotor for this test i've got one lead clipped on that wire on the diode and we'll touch the other to a ground on the rotor and no issues here we're already over 600 million ohms and climbing there is no issue with the insulation on the stator or rotor i think that just proved it now i don't know what good ohms values are for either for any of these coils but nothing is shorted the insulation is fine you know i would say we don't have an issue here the capacitor is good so there's only two reasons left why this can't power up either we have a bad diode on that rotor or we lost residual magnetism so i think the least destructive thing to try at this point is to put the cap back on connect everything back up we'll start it again we'll try flashing it see if we can't get it to come back without cutting that diode out it's actually the next day and despite what i just said i can think of a third reason why we're not getting power output and that is that we are getting power output and there's actually an issue in here in the control panel itself so i did reconnect this to the control panel and checked the resistance from the outlets of leg 1 and link 2. and the readings i got matched what i got when testing directly so that pretty much eliminates a wiring issue a circuit breaker issue or an outlet issue and we're kind of back to the other two options i was talking about a second ago until i went online and looked up this capacitor you know this clearly is not the correct part because the guy before me covered it all in electrical tape to insulate it properly so i wanted to see what does the correct part look like and i was able to find it and it looks pretty much just like this except there's no wires here instead there's just these spade terminals coming right out the top of the capacitor and the excitation winding just connects directly onto those and then no need for electrical tape so i was thinking ordering one of those just to make it the correct part and then it hit me there was a picture of the correct capacitor and it was hard to see the microfarad rating because it was actually a watermark over it but i could see the number two which didn't make sense so i thought maybe that was just a stock photo so i google searched the part number and found on multiple sites that yes in fact it should be 22 microfarads for this generator not five so although this tested well i think my mistake was trusting the guy before me had put the right part in there and clearly he didn't and that alone would absolutely keep this from powering up now i guess the question that i have to ask myself is why did you replace it in the first place obviously it had stopped making power so we could still have a diode issue but i would say 100 percent we have a capacitor issue so i have ordered a new one it's going to be a few days before it gets here so while waiting for that i'm going to do a few basic tune-up items we'll get the oil changed and clean up that carb i was kind of debating whether i wanted to clean this car but not i mean it did run the engine for the 10 seconds i ran it granted it didn't sound perfect but it did a better job than most anyway i'm glad i did because i just pulled the drain out and let the bowl drain and was kind of surprised to find this in the bottom you know that line down there that is water that is saturated with rust nice the main jets right there this is probably one of the smaller main jets and this brass breaks really easy so it doesn't come out i wouldn't force it let's give it a try got it and i believe the emulsion tube is removable on this one and the only thing left here on the top is the pilot circuit right there you all right and that's it it's not much to these carbs we got pretty lucky with this one everything came out throttle plate is not stuck so this should clean up pretty well the rust you know it is what it is the cleaners and kind of help with that and this bowl yeah probably i'm not going to use that i actually have a carburetor from a subaru ex13 that i couldn't save because the throttle plate was rusted in place and that one had a bad bowl too but i let it soak in evaporate for a few days and it cleaned up pretty well so i'll try to clean that up but most likely that needs to soak in a vapor rust and instead of waiting i'll just grab that other bowl you it's actually cleaning up pretty well in case you're wondering that is the secret sauce i use in my ultrasonic it is made by harbor freight it is their super heavy duty degreaser it is concentrated and it's not flammable and non-toxic so i prefer using this just over some of the other alternatives it works pretty well you it's always a good idea to test the function of the needle and see now this one was working before i cleaned it but sometimes when you put it together it doesn't quite go together the way that it should so like this it simulates a full bowl and when i blow through this line you should hear no air if you hear something it's gonna leak and we're good done new capacitor showed up today and it seems to be the right part you got 22 microfarad on the label and you know when ordering online it's really hard to tell sometimes the scale of what you're ordering and i thought this was the same dimensionally as the one that was in there but now that it's here you can see there's a pretty substantial difference so i was a little bit worried that it wasn't going to fit but it lines up perfectly with that hole and there's plenty of clearance so this should be fine let's just double check that it is in fact 22 microfarads before installing this now this capacitor can be plus or minus five percent so anywhere between 21 and 23 microfarads should be fine and we're at 21.7 that's perfect you you place your bets nice gotta be honest when i bought this i was not expecting that the stator would come back i've picked up a bunch of these power mates that don't make power and pretty much every single one has been terminal with a bad stator and that's not the case here i mean obviously the stator is fine the engine is fine and that's good and bad because i may not have bought this if i had known this was a viable generator because now we have a good engine and stator but the rest of this thing is a mess and needs quite a bit of work so i think the next step here is probably to test this a bit longer just make sure there's no surprises and if everything continues to run well under load then i think i need to get this back in get the engine and stator uninstalled from the frame and try to improve on what's going on here so so [Applause] not too bad started first pull and the engine sounds pretty good it is running a touch lean but i guess that's to be expected without the air box i'm not too worried about that now as far as the voltage goes it was high 129 volts and the engine speed was at 62 hertz usually i like them closer to 61 and a half but you know i think we're in the ballpark now this doesn't have an avr so it is normal to see voltages around 130 volts without a load and load it up to 3000 watts which is close to the max that this is rated for continuously the engine speed held at about 58 and a half hertz and the voltage dropped to about 118 volts so i would say the engine is doing fine you know it's not down on power it is lean but again we'll just wait till we get the air box you know i i have the information i need you know a power head has no issues delivering the power neither does the engine so that means i need to get this back inside and see if i can't clean up this frame any so uh [Music] it took quite a bit longer to get these off than i expected i'd say about 15 minutes in total and the reason for that is that the bolts that were used were way too short and instead of going all the way through the nut was actually in there and it was impossible to get a wrench or pliers or anything on that so i ended up just using the right size drill bit kind of wedged it between the frame and the nut and got it to lock the nut in place and then finally they spun off anyway we're in you know the frame is bare so i'm going to attack this with a flapper disc and just knock all the rust off that i can i mean this is never going to be perfect even if the frame is made perfect because there's overspray on everything you know it's on the tank it's on the recoil it's on the control panel and i'm not going to be able to clean up everything but we'll at least get the frame squared away we'll get everything proper and i'll clean up the rest the best that i can so so for whatever reason this generator is missing its feet and instead installed where these two pipes bolted together right there which honestly does not work very well but i guess it's better than nothing anyway i do have extra feet i think the ones closest to fitting this frame are from a predator generator i have two of these they're meant to be mounted like this but as you can see they don't fit so i'm going to install them like that and i want to drill those holes out first before painting this up [Music] [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] [Music] [Music] so gonna use a dremel to take a little bit of paint off here this grounding wire needs to have a connection to the frame [Music] you you [Music] things are coming together pretty well those predator feet are perfect for this generator the frame is sitting nice and level and those wheels i did end up going with a longer bolt that goes all the way through so the reassembly was quite a bit easier and that also corrected a negative camber issue that i had on those wheels so really not much left now it's just the handle the control panel and the tank now when cleaning the frame when prepping it for paint at one point i did put some alcohol on to clean things up and i noticed a lot of the blue paint like the overspray came off with the alcohol without damaging anything else so there is quite a bit of overspray on the tank and a little bit on the control panel so i'm gonna try a bit of alcohol maybe we can get that cleaned up and looking a little bit better you perfect put a bunch of that alcohol in the spray bottle so i'm just going to spray this down and see if i can't get it off anyway you get the idea it's coming off pretty well i mean it's not going to be perfect but it'll be much better well guys that is pretty much it i mean this generator was a complete mess and now it actually looks like someone may have cared for it but as tempted as i am to wrap things up i can you know i am still missing one major piece and that is the air box it's actually been three weeks since i started filming this video and the air box i ordered from amazon for 40 bucks it never shipped amazon actually canceled the order so i went to ebay found another one for 10 more so that order has been placed i think the only catch is it's shipping from israel so it's going to be a few weeks before i see it so i'm going to hit pause here turn it back on in a second we'll get that air box installed and then i want to bring it out and run it one last time the paint on the exhaust does need to get up to temperature to fully cure it's been a total of six weeks and the air box is finally here now this is not an oem air box but it looks like it will be compatible and you know subaru parts are expensive which leads me to the next problem i don't have a gasket for between the air box and the carburetor so you know a gasket set is available for 22. so i can make one virtually for free and i already have a template from a previous project so i'm going to use this we'll transfer that over to some gasket material and just cut it out and then finish this thing up the outer edges here do not need to be perfect really what counts is these holes and these notches here they need to line up so that the gasket goes on centered properly this is just a parts carb but it is the same carb that's on that engine and this carbs no good but still serves a purpose i can double check this gasket you can see we're pretty close i think this is the only part that's a little bit off i just got to move the hole for the stud just a touch further out that should do there is a small difference on these boxes the breather on the old one goes in on the side whereas the new one it goes into the back here and i mean i could make that work but you know i've already checked the filters and the cover for the for the new air box fit on this old housing so i think i'm just going to clean this up a bit i'll reuse the old backing and just put everything new on the front got to put this filter in dry but if it's still running lean i'll add a little bit of oil to it to richen things up [Applause] [Applause] to be honest i did not give this one much of a chance you know i bought it for the engine and generally the generator is not making power it's terminal but in this case the guy before me just used the wrong part you know once that capacitor was replaced the power head came to life and is doing a good job and so is the engine you know the addition of the air box definitely richened it up a bit i think just enough and you know the frame i mean what can i say about the frame it was a disaster had a lot of hardware missing over spray rust you name it but now it almost looks like someone took care of this so i hope this video helps someone thanks for watching

Channel: James Condon

Views: 133,326

Keywords: 277-32622-20, Bad Fuel, Brushless, Capacitance Test, Capacitor, Carburetor Clean, Coleman, DPE, EX17, EX21, Fixed, Frame Repair, Generator, Insulaton Test, Little Output, Low Voltage, Microfarad, Mikuni, No Power, Ohms Test, Painting, Powermate, Residual Magnetism, Small Engine, Subaru, The Guy Before Me, Troubleshooting, WD40, Wrong Capacitor

Id: etLdLLDs1ZY

Length: 70min 40sec (4240 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 22 2021