any help on genny?

Hello
I have a Union generator I have tested most things to my ability and the only thing I can come up with is it may want new brushes, as I have said in the beginning it's a Union genny that's all the info I have. Does any one know anyone who can help?
Dave

Howdy flogalog,

How about some of these gents...

Wrexham Electrical Repairs, Unit 3 gardden Industrial estate, LL14 6RG, Ruabon. 01978 810586.

If they dont float your boat then try Eames of Wrexham (rewinds) ltd.

I have not used either of these guys but remember a friend using them a few years back (both companies)... might be worth a call first....

Best of luck!

Hamish

Hello Hamish
Thanks for this Hamish, Chas Eames were the best around for maybe 50 years but sadly they have gone, if they were still in business they would fix it for sure,
Wrexham electrical cant even look at me for at least a fortnight and when I spoke to them they didn't seem too interested because they were so busy
Best Regards Dave

Just reading another thread in the general section - the Gents there have pointed out a couple of options you might want... shame about Eames - i had them in my 'engines useful contacts book' guess I will have to pull that page out

http://www.stationaryengineforum.net/t8253-lucas-magneto

let us know how you get along!

best

hamish

you say it might need new bushes, try taking them out and rubbing the working surface with fine wire wool. if it looks scored then try and remove the scoring. try not to change the shape too much as they will have to bed in again. make sure you put them back in the way they came out since most are designed to go a certain way.

there is also a PDF on the internet about various easy to do tests on a generator. its written by lucas for their lucas 12v generator, but it works for any other genny that works in the same way (i did it on a 24V lancaster bomber generator). it will tell you how to set up the test (where to plug in multimeter ect), the result you should get and a list of results that aren't correct and what they mean. if you want it i can email it to you as i have it on my computer.
hope this helps,
callum

Hello Callum
Thanks for this info, I went to a local show after posting my problem and I ran the engine without the genny doing anything and lo and behold I ran into 4 gents who worked on generators of different makes and sizes and they were a mine of information. The problem with my genny was it needed exciting!(I had scrubbed up the brushes by the way) so I came home got my jump leads and flashed the terminals and the genny came back to life and now I'm an expert on exciting gennys
Best Regards Dave

i'm glad you sorted it out, my generator needs exciting to (sometimes). my generator will usually self excite after 30 seconds, if it does't i give the engine a little rev, that usually gets it going. what most people tend to do with non self exciting generators is to run it with a battery (usually 12V) so they would have the generator charging the battery and lights ect running off the battery.
enjoy your new, excited generator!  

Callum

Hello Callum
That's a good idea to put a battery along side the genny because I seem to have to excite the genny a lot now, I dare not give the engine much revving it starts the trailer rocking
Best Regards Dave

or you could do what the big showman's steam engines do, have a small 'exciter' dynamo and feed the power from that into the union generator.
a battery is probably simpler though.
Callum

Agreed
Dave