Portable generator low volts!

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Gerry

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Our Chinese-made portable generator was humming away on the side of the boat when we were soaked by a passing jet-ski!

The voltage has been down 10 -20 % ever since, so water obviously got in and did some damage.

The motor seems fine, so maybe water damaged the brushes? Should I try spraying switch cleaner in there, or WD40, or what else would anybody suggest?
 
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My guess is that the salt water has got onto printed circuit boards of the regulator and if applicable the inverter. There may be a trim potentiometer which samples the output and adjusts it to give correct voltage and any change of resistance caused by salt water could affect the output. Yes you can't do too much harm by flooding it all with WD spray of some sort. If that leaves a sticky mess then spray with white spirit ie dry cleaning fluid or petroleum that will vaporise. Perhaps even methylated spirits. good luck olewill
 
Will, is it worth flushing the circuit boards carefully with distilled water first, and then drying them to get rid of any residual salt before using WD40 ?
 
Thanks for those comments. Fortunately it was fresh water, we are currently on a river in Guatemala.
The *******s came back and did it again this afternoon. I have just got back to the boat after accompanying 6 naval guys with very large guns as we tried to find them. Think we did but were warned off by 'papa' who suggested it could be dangerous for me to ask more questions!!!

Oh the joys of Central America!


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William_H said:
. . . . Yes you can't do too much harm by flooding it all with WD spray of some sort. If that leaves a sticky mess then spray with white spirit . . .
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It is a little known fact that WD-40 is White Spirit, White Spirit is also known as Stoddard Solvent :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoddard_solvent

Back in the 1960's (my Royal Navy days) we were told this fact and it was far cheaper to put white spirit in a hand-held garden plant-sprayer. Try it! The quick test is to wait for a rainy day and spray White Spirit onto the bonnet of your car and watch the rain magically run off like mercury!

Once you have been shown, it is a hell of a lot cheaper than the aerosol version! The only real benefit with the aerosol version, WD-40, is the little plastic pipe which can direct the spray into awkward and small places.

If I remember correctly, there is a SAE 5 oil added (sowing-machine oil) which is the lubricant part of WD-40. :p

I can also add a little story about Ford Cortinas Mark II's and others, which were for ever non-starting in the late 60's and 1970's. Ian Smith (Rhodesia) declared UDI in 1965. Harold Wilson threw his toys out of the pram and stopped buying copper from the country, Rhodesia's major export. After about a year or two, the motor trade started to look round for a cheaper alternative to copper and found that they could get away with using graphite 'string' in place of the copper in the HT leads of cars.

In time the 'graphite string' burnt away internally inside the HT lead and it became harder and harder for the coil to create a breakdown voltage (BV) across the spark plug gap, it required a higher and higher voltage to start the car. This was particularly noticeable in winter and damp weather as the electrickery lost some of the voltage leaking to earth on the outside of the HT lead leaving even less for starting.

This fact was very noticeable on a dark nights as you could 'see' the blue flashes running down the leads when the engine was running. You could also try and hold the HT leads and you soon discovered that a lot of the voltage was outside the lead. :eek: [Always seems to be this fault when it was raining and you have your girl-friend in your car]! :mad:

The cure, at the time was to dose the HT leads with WD-40 but although this did assist when first applied, it left the SAE-5 oil on the leads and this being a hydro-carbon and with the damp and salt from the winter roads, this oil residue soon attracted more engine oil fumes, damp and road dirt which then stuck to the leads and caused the problem to return. More WD-40 would now be the only cure but now the time span was shorted and the HT leads got dirtier and dirtier! More WD-40 etc, etc . . . :eek:

More and more WD-40 was added until there came a time when it would help no more. The spark track had now burnt a path to earth via the outside of the HT leads and this track was now hard carbon sometimes it even burnt a carbon track clean through the coil top, distributor cap or rotor! In an emergency, the carbon track could be scraped off, 'broken', using a pen-knife but it was a very short-lived repair. :(

The only cure was a new set of HT leads and WOW the Cortina (Mini, Renault, etc.) would seem have had a major power boost as the spark plugs were again getting the correct BV at the correct part of the ignition timing cycle.

I hated those graphite leads with a passion and always fitted copper which were far more expensive. At the time, the motor-trade adverts stated that the graphite HT leads aided RF spark suppression which it did but at the expense of performance. Copper HT leads and suppressor caps were the best cure. ;)
 
Quite right! The engine bay of my old Mk2 used to look like bonfire night on a wet winter evening :) WD would get you going - but not for long; its only a short term elctrical 'fix'.

Almost certainly the water is in the electrics. Wash down the circuit boards with clean fresh preferably distilled water, allow to dry, then spray with switch cleaner. WD will just make a mess because of the oil in it and in the marine environment may well actually attract damp and problems in the longer term as Lenseman points out. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=switch cleaner&source=15
 
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Be careful what spray you use. A friend of mine sprayed his switch panel with an alternative WD 40 spray when winterising his boat. When he started the engine the panel went up in a blue light.
Willie
 
If I remember correctly, there is a SAE 5 oil added (sowing-machine oil) which is the lubricant part of WD-40.

Wasn't it originally called ''Rocket'' in the Pusser ?
 
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