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Old Generator

rusty6

rusty6

Well-known Member
Location
East central Sask.
It says 1979 on the plate so thats 40 years. I recently acquired this old generator and know nothing much about it. I was told that if I hooked those cables up to a 12 volt battery it would crank start the Briggs motor. It did not turn when I tried it. The motor seems to turn ok by hand but I have not tried to start it yet. Some pictures might help.
mvphoto45346.jpg
 
To help with information, try to get some close up photos of the generator labels and post them. Looks interesting. I worked with a World War II generator with a big 4 cylinder Willis engine. Memory is a bit dim but think I remember there was a 12 volt winding on the generator to start the engine, then when engine was running up to speed the generator put out ac voltage, 120 or 240, don't remember which. I think I still have the electrical schematic of it.
 
I have one of those WW2 era generators with the Willys engine. It is the stand by generator on my farm. It does have a 12 volt armature and windings on the same shaft with the AC windings and armature. When you hit the starter it silently starts to turn over till the engine starts. There are automatic start controls on it so they had that capability way back then. I do not plan to ever attempt to use the automatic start though.
 

I found one like it for sale on line:

https://www.vintageplanet.ca/Bizzy-B-Generator_p_293.html

You might try calling Princess Auto to see if they have any information on it. They were able to get me parts for an old one of their Chinese knock-off Honda engines a few years back.
 
About 1968 I remember visiting someone in a remote area of Canada where they didn't have hydro, so they had a generator out in a shed. When they flipped a light switch in the house the generator would start, and I would imagine when there was no more power being used it shut down, all automatic.
 
Tag looks good here. It says model ES 353 R, Serial 9SS43, Volts AC 115/230, Volts DC 12 V, RPM 3600. Watts 3750, cycles 60

The 2 letters in the Serial number could be 5s, but that's not terribly relevant compared to other information.
 
(quoted from post at 21:00:12 11/14/19) Does the engine have access for rope start? DC part of the generator may need work.
Click to expand...
Yes, it has the typical Briggs rope start pulley on the other end that I can try starting with. I'll have to give it a try and see if that works.
 
Unless otherwise blocked, wouldn't applying 120V or 240V to the respective output also turn the generator into a motor, thus spinning the engine?

My portable generator has a 16HP single-cylinder Kohler, with a lawn mower sized battery. I usually jump it from the truck or tractor, but I suppose it has 12V DC output to charge that battery. Not as handy as what yours has, for sure.

Mine also has the rope start pulley option. I tried it once while the motor was still hot, it started, but I'm not sure that's the best plan...
 
Well with my eyes. Every little bit helps. I could make out most of it but not all. I will see what if anything is out there.The problem you run into on these old units.So many tried to sell them and. Could not so they gave up after a short time.
 
(quoted from post at 05:30:05 11/15/19) So, you have a 12 volt battery hooked to it? Interesting that it's 12 volt, when everything else [cars/tractors/trucks] of that era was 6V.
Click to expand...
Not in 1979 which is the date on the tag. I guess I could plug in a trouble light to the gen and try starting the motor by hand just to see if it puts out anything. Those old Briggs engines are not hard to start by hand. I ran one on a grain auger for years. A few pulls on the drive belt usually had it running.
 
I found my technical information for the unit I worked with. It shows two 6 V batteries in series for the starting function. Also the manufacturer was Okeefe and Merritt of Los Angeles. Further info I have says they were not available for WW II, but saw lots of use during Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Sorry Rusty. This is probably "hijacking" your thread. Again sorry.
 
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