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  • #16
    PITB but the silver lining is you found out now and will be ready for whatever it is that happens in the next 3 months when it's colder.
    Got that old odd feeling on the back of my neck.

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    • #17
      Not giving up on the old girl.. the China diesel generator that is LOL.

      Had a little more time to mess with it. Worked on the Murphy switch a bit and got it going. Generator will now attempt to start via the Murphy switch which is how it always has.

      I cracked the nut on the 2 cylinders and I'm getting fuel out of them also-

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      So I've bled every damn line I can see and everywhere I can see fuel can go, there is fuel. Yet it will not fire up. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot over! Even the return line (last thing in line in that pic to the right of the injector head will spew fuel when the clamp is released. Not even hearing big air hisses or rushes of air when any of these are cracked to bleed the lines.

      Going to follow up with some diesel experts more this week.

      The old gal is a workhorse and will power the main deep well and charge our battery bank at the same time- 12KW is nothing to snuff at. So I'm not giving up on it- hell if anything it's a great learning about diesel engines experience.

      However I am adding a gas/propane 10KW generator as a backup. Our breaker box that goes to the well pump will have a third breaker added for the option of using the new generator (diesel generator and battery bank/inverter are the other two options). And the AC1 in for the inverter which is currently fed only by the diesel genset will have a small breaker box where the options will be gas/propane generator or diesel generator. That line brings power from the generator(s) to the inverter which acts as a charger for the battery bank. In other words, when I need to bulk EQ the battery bank, or just do a bulk charge into the battery bank (crappy weather with little solar, etc).
      www.homesteadingandsurvival.com

      www.survivalreportpodcast.com

      "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed..."

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      • #18
        Good work, good evaluation techniques.
        Wonder if your diesel tech can do a wet and dry compression test. on cylinder may have lost piston rings and have insufficient compression to combust.

        One thing to look at is for 1000 gallon propane tank with wet leg.
        As natural gas gets into more and more homes, many own their prop tank.
        I've gotten two 1000 gallon wet leg tanks this way for under $800.
        One even came with 200 gallons in it.

        Between local listings and asking my propane suppliers I've got results and leads.
        I did get two tanks from Fort Carson civilian side. They were old but tested out good.
        I don't do facebook but I've heard deals can be found on facebook market place.

        Wet legs are so cool and filling smaller tanks from the big tank is so easy.

        Hang in there, wish I lived closer but I'm not leaving the high rockies cause they feel safe.
        BTW, thanks for what you do in all of your arenas.

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        • #19
          Lessons learned: good tools pay off, have cash in the house… regarding generators, three is one…store good gas in good(metal) cans…take small bites of the cleanup elephant…treasure good neighbors…have multiple charging cables and battery packs… a hotspot is invaluable to maintain comms and intel…set your radio nets up before hand.
          Salutations,
          Templar

          __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________

          There are very good reasons why we all are gathered here...

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          • #20
            Lowdown, the thought occurred to me that you’ve done everything but check the fuel… also, didn’t you have some clogged trombone(?) nuts a while back that gave the same symptoms ?
            Salutations,
            Templar

            __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________

            There are very good reasons why we all are gathered here...

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            • #21
              Glad to hear you all made it through safe.

              Diesel is relatively fresh, got a fill up a little over a year ago, flushed the tank previous to that when I last drained it.

              Trombone??

              Our friend with all the tats brought a guy to hunt one time, tall fella with buck teeth and the unique nickname... but he knew diesel and I was having some issues with it then. I believe he did the same things I've tried, maybe removed and cleaned one of the injectors. Can't remember exactly what he did. Asked the tat'ed guy (who texts me from time to time) and he couldn't remember either- so damn long ago.
              www.homesteadingandsurvival.com

              www.survivalreportpodcast.com

              "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed..."

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              • #22
                Just a comment. for all of my diesels, I keep a full spare set of injectors cause they're a b i t ch to repair at home.
                Just seemed to make sense to me and later I was really glad I had them, Only needed 3 so far but no regrets on having them.

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                • #23
                  Had a guy over to help and we opened up the new pump today-

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                  What was interesting was with the top part off, when we pushed down on the springs they were extremely tight- stuck basically. You can see in the middle pic inside of it the little black circles are like lifters (don't know the correct mechanical term) that basically push up and force the fuel through the pump to the top pieces (first pic) where it then goes up the metal lines to the cylinders. We had to work those a bit to get them to move at all. My diesel guy took the unit apart and tried everything. My original pump is with another guy that is testing it. I think between the two of them we should be able to get something going, but it would appear like the New one (in pics) is not working correctly. To quote the guy today- "this is a simple 2 cylinder engine, this should be pumping."
                  www.homesteadingandsurvival.com

                  www.survivalreportpodcast.com

                  "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed..."

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                  • #24
                    Late to the party..prc hit a bunch of what my limited knowledge of diesel is.
                    glad you made it through and your AAR is a good reminder/eye opener for sure.
                    it's been a crazy month..helene didnt do much here...Milton on the other hand, will have me busy at the inlaws once the river goes down. Between work and just clean up the 1st week wore everyone down. I've hot a culvert on the first driveway/gate that's toast from flash flooding...hvac was 15 Inches under ..ducts and all. So it's been portables for me.
                    while I have 3 gens, I've been looking into the solar generators for charging etc to save fuel..
                    Only had 4 buckets of lts float around banging into stuff under the house during the flood....nice thing about mykar and o2s..slide the bsg out...dry...slide back in lol.

                    Only main issue here is no power..means no lift pump ..camp toilets and outdoor showers ( I have a harden multi spray head attached to the side of the house).burn barrel for the " trash" . For hot h20 you ho do a gravity fed/convection set up .would need a small fire and copper pipe..think " still " in design. But building fires ...when it's summer sucks..lol
                    On laundry...i picked up an old crank style " wringer" years ago that clamps to tables and barrel lips...

                    Again glad you came out of it...and agree..most people are just useless lumps.
                    Hey Petunia...you dropped your man pad!

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                    • #25
                      Damn, sounds like you got it from Milton pretty good Protus. Let us know if you need anything.
                      Boris- "He's famous, has picture on three dollar bill!"

                      Rocky- "Wow! I've never even seen a three dollar bill!"

                      Boris- "Is it my fault you're poor?"

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by 1Admin View Post
                        Damn, sounds like you got it from Milton pretty good Protus. Let us know if you need anything.
                        I'm good to go. Just was inconvenienced for a minute Lot of folks have and are dealing with bigger problems.
                        . Not our 1st rodeo...but going through these storms in a rural/semi rural environment is way way different than being in a town/city..
                        we laugh it all off . We are prepared to the gills..but in the end you cant stop mother nature.

                        The biggest thing the 2 for 2$ storms showed us was our fuel storage. I had 3 cans leak. Thst shorted me 15 gallons. If i did not have the commute it'd be a non issue. But the ol blue silverado goes through 5 gallons a day.( I need a prius lol ) and gas was a no go till I got into town 40 miles away with long lines. The first 4 days everything was out of gas.
                        good metal cans or some MFCs may replace the old red blitz cans. Luckily we top off pre storm( cars gens,saws) and I still had 35 gals on hand.

                        glad yall are safe....and again great AAR/write up of your experiences.


                        Hey Petunia...you dropped your man pad!

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Did you get the generator running?
                          It came to mind that I acquired a 70 kw gas generator made in 1970.
                          It was a backup for an AT&T site.
                          High school class rebuilt it and bypassed a lot of stuff to get it to run.
                          They even put a car alternator on it to charge the starter batteries.
                          I got with the retired 80 year old tech who knew it inside and out.
                          Once I got all the relays straightened out it worked like it was designed to.
                          Turn the switch to on and it cranks until it gets oil pressure and then stops cranking and just runs.
                          Oh, the generator even had a built in battery charger so now I have the big ac generator which has an outboard 100 amp 12 vdc alternator if I ever figure out something for it to do.

                          What brought this to mind was all the relays interacting with each other and the low oil pressure and high temp cutouts.
                          Might give you some ideas on chasing the problem.

                          While restoring it to original design, I used clip leads to bypass different relays until it ran and then all made sense.

                          Hope you got it fixed already.

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                          • #28
                            It's definitely the fuel pump. A guy has both of the fuel pumps now.

                            He came out a few weeks ago, went through all the normal stuff that we have done six million times now and mentioned looking at the fuel pump. The old one was off and so I sent him back with that one.

                            One of my normal guys that helps with the heavy equipment came next week, he took the new one apart and it was locked stiff. We messed with it about four hours.

                            The guy that took the first one called me last weekend and I went to his shop. He showed me how one of the little rods where the fuel actually pumps up or through was working smoothly and the other was not. Like it was either just a smidge off spec or bent a bit in the slightest way- and you cannot see this if it's a small bend. Keep in mind that's the original pump, which worked well for years, so I doubt it was out of spec to begin with. He said he had been polishing the one and it had gotten better but ideally it would need replacement. I told him- well I have a non working brand new one just in from Chyna. Brought it to him the other day and told him use whatever the hell you need to from both of them to get one working. Should be a couple days.

                            I got the Muprhy switch working myself after tinkering with it for a while. I have previously replaced the solenoid, there is also a solenoid on the starter and that and the starter was tested at an electric shop and found to be fine.

                            One of the things we did was get the unit firing with ether and a small amount of diesel in the air cleaner and it ran for 10 seconds or so like it should.
                            Boris- "He's famous, has picture on three dollar bill!"

                            Rocky- "Wow! I've never even seen a three dollar bill!"

                            Boris- "Is it my fault you're poor?"

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                            • #29
                              Perfect! Very good on you.
                              Wasn't the best of times to have it happen but now it'll be ready for the worst of times.

                              Just wondering if the unit makes dc to keep starter batteries charged, might be a good idea to have an electric pump with a hose on in and out.
                              That's saved me a couple of times with my CUCV diesels.

                              Glad you have a solution.

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                              • #30


                                Interesting posts online regarding the hurricane and on the water, gas, SUPPLY issues etc. others have posted.

                                Quantity.

                                When we are new/newer to this, we drastically underestimate quantities needed. And this was just a hurricane with short term effects.

                                We were joking about the old BS "72 hour kit" mentality about a week in. I said "WTH are those people doing now?" Then we mentioned the same for the "all you need is 2 weeks" aka wait for the fema camps to be set up people once we got to the 2 week point.

                                Think about experiences during the hurricane then add in the following: (i.e, for a longer term more serious situation)

                                1. It was truly a short term event, even a few weeks into it, you KNEW it wasn't going to last forever (i.e, nukes)
                                2. No one was truly "starving"
                                3. Very little violence/crime in most areas.
                                4. Weather was good (wasn't dead of winter)
                                5. Area affected was a small'ish section of the country (i.e, not the whole country), which allowed "relief" and supplies to flow in.
                                6. Economics were not affected- people/places still took your dollar bills/FRNs. When you could get out, you COULD get supplies (gas, food, etc.) even though lines might have been involved.

                                Don't assume everything we prepare for is going to be this clean. For example- we saw a lot of people carrying pistols early on, but most gave that up within a few days. We took rifles and gear with us in our vehicles the first couple trips out, then they just sat in the house. A pistol on the belt allowed you to still run a chainsaw, roll logs, run a tractor, etc. How much different would it be where more security would be needed? The two people cutting up trees is now 4 with overwatch. Going out to get some more gas for your gas hog generator could mean risking getting "Disease X" or getting in a riot. Distribution system could be completely effed and even though "your guy" at Napa might have the part you need, he may be unable to part with it or may want more than you have (last of it's kind, therefore more valuable). He may or may not then be stupid enough to take FRNs, he definitely isn't going to take your card..

                                The one good thing was laying in bed during it I thought about money sitting in the bank. I had been previously being a cheap arse and putting off some improvements/upgrades to our AE system, homestead in general etc. Sitting there at night thinking "that ain't doing us no damn good right now" (money sitting in the bank), motivated me to move forward on things I wast just being chincey about spending money on. Heard the same thing from close friends/relatives some of which we are doing stuff like splitting costs of another pallet of solar panels, helping each other with installs, etc.

                                Used to love trees, pines are nice cause they don't drop leaves and are bare, giving some concealment year round. They are great till you have a hurricane. Expanding that clear perimeter out a good bit more, some in cleanup, some pulled reluctantly.

                                Trying to "look on the bright side" of things, I'm viewing the destruction as a impetus to clean the slate and make way for improvements/changes in homestead we've been plann​

                                Lots of things we can take away from the hurricane- and trust me it was a major PITA and a true "SHTF" situation, but we may face something a lot more long lasting and severe in various ways.​
                                www.homesteadingandsurvival.com

                                www.survivalreportpodcast.com

                                "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed..."

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