Will It Make Power Again? Blown Generator Engine and Bad Stator? 

A master class in small motor repair. Very thorough. I'm going to start my own generator business. Much of which I learned from his demos

Wise man said: "sometimes you need to be a little smarter than the tool you are using" The drill thing - brilliant! Troy Bilt 5550 watt model 030245. Was not delivering power. I did replace the circuit breaker and brush rectifier (the only two real electrical parts) but still no power :( I then found this video. Took apart the whole gen head to inspect the rotor and stator. Both looked good. Put everything back together. Fired it up and did the drill thing a few times and Viola! Power again! 😀 Would never had figured that out without this video. Many thanks James!

Once again these videos drive home the importance of checking the oil level before starting a small engine. A step easily overlooked when in a hurry during a power outage. I'm appreciating the low oil shutoff feature on my WEN generator with each of these broken engine teardowns.

James, thank you for all your videos and especially the step-by-step processes you took to replace a blown engine, check the electrical parts, reassemble, and test. I am putting a generator like this back together with a replacement used engine. I had it almost ready to go, but think I need to make sure I torqued the bolts from the stator to the rear bell housing correctly before I proceed further. Thanks again, James! Keep up the good work.

Thank you, James, for sharing your wisdom and thought process in fixing these things. You and Mr. Carlson's Lab are two of my favorite tech fix-it channels. You go straight to the point... no loud music, no cheesy graphics, no cussing, and no irrelevant side-comments. Well done, sir!

Well done James, another one saved from the crusher.

Thank you James. You show how important it is to always check the oil before starting the engine! Love how you Flashed the Generator!

James, have been a ham radio operator for almost 40 years and have never run into a Megger ohms tester. Thanks for the education!

Morning coffee and watching James at work 🇦🇺🦘👍

Glad to see you got a Megger, you can now check every Winding using it to test for faults, thanks for the Videos

The abundance of generators in your area amazes me! I have been looking for months, all alerts set on craigslist, FB, OfferUP, and I haven't seen many come available. your content is amazing, keep it up! Congrats on 25k!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing your time and know how james your a natural.

Congratulation James, finally you acquired a megger meter. No matter how high a caliper you are. Definitely, the new toy would give you a tremendous booster shot. As always I enjoy your instructional videos. Thanks for sharing.

WOW...you are a genius man...this channel is way better than any college classes

As always, James, Hurrah! and Well Done! That unused oil sensor port nags me of course. How ridiculous tgat Briggs discontinued fitting it . . .

James I admire your work ethics a lot. In fact in this video to recover this genset was very well done and could be used for new technicians as a training video. Only three points as an addendum. 1. The bolts into the bell housing from the stator housing were not inserted before using a rubber mallet to set the bearing thus making them miss the connecting bolts. Unless there was a guide pin or slot. 2. If the bore would have looked better for the cylinder I believe I could have tig welded this case back to usable easily. Not sure if you can weld but since you have such a good work ethic it would be easy for you to learn and a lot of these engine cases if in a pile somewhere you could have a valuable bit of engine components. 3. I believe if there was a voltage pot on this genset somewhere turning down the voltage 5v would be beneficial. I did not see an avr so this unit would need some finnagling to reduce the voltage from an amount that might damage small computer components. Good video.

Quite a number of things i did not know...I am more enlightened!....I have a 10 yr old gennie, hardly used, with no output...gonne check brushes, AVR, stator, and armature for these issues he spoke of! Big Thanx! (I knew about the drill thing, 'tho...)

Doc, what a great problem solving explanation and demonstration? You make it easy to understand.

The sign of a good tech is one that doesn't just "give up" on parts... but learns WHY they failed. A good teacher is also a student at the same time.

EXCELLENT !! "Drill Flashing"; a quick 12vdc source at the correct polarity to the rings should also charge up the flux? 60Hz via spring tension; seems the designers would have a control rod length adjustment or bend the rod? That tab seems like something that would snap-off for me....

Phenomenal content James, seems nobody knows how to put oil in these poor Briggs engines😂😂

I learn the most from your train wreck units.

Thanks for the video James. And well done with persevering with that powerhead, had a feeling we hadn't seen the last of it.

Great video and well done as always James, another generator brought back from the dead!

You might be able to salvage the engine case by welding the hole in the side to close it up (not a structural point), hone the cylinder and get a new piston, rings to the cyl new dia, and a connecting rod. The slight increase in diameter can give it a little bit more power.

Nice to have extra parts, even "dead" ones, on hand. Nice job resurrecting those parts back into a functioning machine! Top quality as always and please do keep them coming. Still waiting on brushes for the Storm Responder flip project I have here.

Thanks James.. Your videos are always helpful ..

nice work. Thank you for explaining the drill and what that accomplished. I thought that might be the reason but its been a few years since I worked on generators.

Nice repair another good generator to add to the sale list 👍👌 @James Condon

Nice to see that flashing the field caused it to start making power again @19:35 @James Condon

Great video showing how a mega tester works 👍👍

James, Very informative thank you ...

Great repair as always - and congratulations on 25K subs

I really enjoy your videos. Very informative. Thanks for sharing .😎

Nice to see these saves

Great video! Thank you.

Ah Ha you fixed the old head or generator part. Fantastic diagnosis. I will never understand all those tests but it is interesting anyway. Got another one saved from the land fill. Thanks for the great videos.

another great job james you was right about that power head being good

You are the man. I have learned a lot from you.

Hey James..Appreciate what you do..you are the master..👍👍👍👍

Once again mr generator is the one that makes those units run like they are supposed to 😊

Another great video, appreciate the clear explanation of flashing the coils and the megger. Briggs really needs to include a low oil cutoff, it should be a requirement for this type of equipment which can run for long periods of time at a stretch.

I'd love to see a power head that tests good with a regular ohm meter but fails with the megger! That would be very interesting. Great video!

Good thing you save good parts!

After the previous video I figured we hadn't seen the last of that power head, great job as always

You seem to be a magnet for wayward and abused generators. The Megger is a great addition to your diagnostic tool collection and is going to save lots of time and questioning. You might want to consider supporting the rotor when torquing it to the crankshaft. I am surprised the manufacturer does not use a shouldered washer under the rotor bolt.

Very well done👍

Well done James! I think you need to wind the generator handle on the Megger to "Slip speed".

The trick using a drill to magnetise the rotor is neat but a tidier approach might be to always temporarily connect a few volts across the AC side of the bridge rectifier before closing up on the rear of the alternator.

Well done Sir! ⚡👍👍👍

Well done Sir I learn the most from you keep up the good content..

I've had good luck by coupling a cordless drill to the corded drill you're using as a generator. Easier than hand spinning the drill. More output too.

I just watched a video on Harbor Freight Aluminum Brazing rods that actually work. Soak the block in some heavy degreaser aluminum braze that hole; polish that crank ball hone that cylinder; new piston; rod; rings and gaskets and make her go. We've already seen you do more on the generator ends so this would be a simple fix for you. Not "junk" it just "hasn't been fixed yet"!!

James, That's great work reviving old dead generators. The question I have is why does this generator work without an AVR when most have one. It seems that the voltage was high then dropped as the load increased. Is that because of this generator has no AVR? I'd like to understand more about these generators and their differences. I find this topic quite interesting.

Very nice job. Like the new megger. Again, why are so many Briggs using so much oil and blowing up. Bad rings, oil seal on intake valve missing or leaking, wrong oil, etc. ??? I see this in snow blowers in my shop also. Many thanks.

Great video James. The detail you provide in troubleshooting and more importantly the explanation of why your doing what your doing is a lot of help to those who watch. Good tip from one of your viewers on creating a shoulder with tape to center the rotor bolt. Couple of questions on this one. What was the benefit of using a crank powered ohm meter? A DVOM is powered by a 9v battery. What's the difference? What can it measure that a DVOM can't and why? What can a DVOM miss or not reproduce?

Use Teflon tape for the bolt shoulder(wrapped the same direction of rotation of course).

That megger is nice need to find one of them to have more testing equipment @James Condon

Congratulations to 25.000 subscribers!

You test with resistive heater elements. Ever consider testing with inductive like a refrigerator motor? Or a window air conditioner.

excellent save

hi james good video mate, another gene save and it looks a good one

great work James , You saved another one ! I have had the China made AVR generators loose there magnet at the rotor several times not sure why as they do have magnets on the rotor to keep that from happening .. ENJOYED !!

Nice work BTW 👏

thanks another great video

nice job again

Very cool vid

27 bucks not bad at all for that megger 21159 @James Condon

Hello James, Yeah I'm betting it is a part#91825GS off white color of brush block with a circuit board on the back of it. a bad diode and/or that little blue capacitor.

good job..

Love and appreciate the knowledge you've been sharing. On that note, would you be kind enough to explain the difference between the two types of brush generators you've repaired? AVR on power head no AVR on power head.

Nice job. FYI, it matters how the DPE winding is connected to brushes. The way I know is I bought a non operating Responder that was not putting out power. When I noticed the improper connection, I reversed the connection and problem resolved. Also, service manual does state polarity matters.

I have a Megger BM7 (Battery Model 7) which I picked up for $5 at a local surplus store presumed non-functional. It turned out the only issue it had was a broken limiting post on the rotary switch on the front. It fabricated a new piece and it is now almost good as new.

Wow that is a ton of oil in the top end not good @James Condon

It seems that you could tighten that rotor bolt after installing the stator, since the stator centers the rotor squarely once installed . At least that's the way I'd approach it.

Greatly enjoy your tutorials. Would like to know where you get your engine specs from and source for aftermarket parts. Thx

That looks good, Jim. I've heard of a megger, but never saw one before. Have you thought about getting generators from your scrap yard to service, or do they restrict purchasing from them?

Love the videos, just curious when your using the torque wrench. You always go to the set limit click and then click it again. Is the first click not accurate?

When you spin the drill to flash / re magnetize the coils . Does it matter which direction you spin the drill ? Thanks

James, why not just keep the blown up engine together to keep all the parts in one place? Is it a space issue? Just if you ever wanted to use those push rods and rockers again it would be best if you kept them as a pair. Not to mention keeping the correct bolts together in the right areas, though I assume the number of these you've done you can rattle off the bolt sizes from memory.

I wonder why these engines have no low oil sensor to prevent it from running when the oil is low

31:40 The engine is waving like a boat when it is under load

When connecting a 12v batery to the brushes, do you need to disconnect the other two wires there or leave them on?

Good test procedure but your use of the Megger did not produce the volts you selected. You need to crank the handle quite a bit faster to test properly.

When aluminum transfers to the crank it will gald in to a new rod . Great video thanks.

do they make retrofit regulators for them?

Do you spin the drill backwards or forward, or doesn't it matter?

May I advise: - 500V max, no need to go to 1000V on 120V winding, not even 240V; - discharge the coil, it keeps energy in after megger. Short circuit the coil before touching it again.

Without looking at the valve how do you know your on the compression stroke

Hi James, What is tread size on the rotor after removing the long bolt. 🤔

Hello I’ve done 5 generators Thanks to your great videos. The hanging fuel bottle is the something your bought or made. Thanks ⛈🌩

Great video. I have a generator with them same setup as far as with the brushes with the bridge rectifier, and I’m only getting half of the 240 volts on 30 amp 240 leg and only 120 volts on 1 leg of the 4 120 outlets..I get no reading with ohm meter thru the brushes/bridge rectifier. Is there a way to test the bridge rectifier brushes?

nice work,,,,,,,,,,, i have a Honda 3000is, 17 year old and alot of early hours ? rebuilt the carb several times , it also has a spark arrester in the outlet of the muffler which became to gummed up preventing a no start , that took weeks to figure out , LOL, anyway she stopped running in January when i needed her,,,,,, anyway will tear engine apart to look for problems and thinking about converting to propane at 68 yrs old i don't see me rebuilding carbs anymore and the 3000is is needed very seldom nowadays ,,, any thoughts about the propane conversion would be appreciated,,,,,,, thank you Bob

Just curious... why bend the spring mount when there are lots of adjustment holes in the throttle lever crank? The Megger is a great tool in your arsenal.

James, can the stator be removed from housing / casing it’s in

I suppose the bad engiine can always be scrapped out for extra parts.

Have you looked into adding low oil shutdowns to these generators? I have nearly the identical generator sold under the Troy Bilt label and it has one. I would think the parts would be a available or even a modified low oil shutdown off the cheap Chinese Honda clone engine everyone is using.

Hey James. Do you usually see this in a lot of these engines I asked that because I see you work on many generators but seem to have all kinds of other issues with them besides a blown motor

Can you recommend a good "current-voltage-frequency" meter similar to what we see you use?

What model Biddle megger is that ? New or used ?