Anybody know from Lincoln welders?

zman111666

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Hey, y'all. Wasn't sure where to post this, but I was hoping someone here has some experience with welder/generators.

I'm working on a Lincoln Ranger 9 Welder that is putting out low voltage, like 70 VAC. I know the problem isn't the engine, or the governor settings, but on the generator side of things. It has been sitting a lot, so I thought that maybe the capacitors needed to be flashed (flashing the exciter field). I used two methods. First, i unhooked the leads from the capacitor bank, and flashed the capacitors with AC house current. The capacitors are rated at 50 volts, so I decided to flash the whole bank as a unit so as not to overload anything. I hooked everything back up, and started it up. Thought I fixed it for a brief second, got 117 volts, but it immediately started slowly dropping back down to 70. Tried another method, where with the engine off, I plug in a typical drill, and while holding the drill's power switch, I hand crank the drill in reverse for a little bit (like 15 - 20 seconds), and then start the welder up. That too had limited success, started out around 96, and once again dropped to 70.

Did any of that make sense to anyone here? Does it sound like a typical problem? I'm thinking maybe a bad capacitor or two, if not, it could be circuit board or regulator. Any thoughts?
 

Fragger

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thia is what i know about welders ,( i have a Lincoln cracker box) , i plug it in, get my hood my gloves & hood then ground my work and strike an arc anything beyond that is all chineese to me but thank you for asking i am sure someone with greater knowledge wil chime in so please Keep us posted :thumbsup:.
Hey, y'all. Wasn't sure where to post this, but I was hoping someone here has some experience with welder/generators.

I'm working on a Lincoln Ranger 9 Welder that is putting out low voltage, like 70 VAC. I know the problem isn't the engine, or the governor settings, but on the generator side of things. It has been sitting a lot, so I thought that maybe the capacitors needed to be flashed (flashing the exciter field). I used two methods. First, i unhooked the leads from the capacitor bank, and flashed the capacitors with AC house current. The capacitors are rated at 50 volts, so I decided to flash the whole bank as a unit so as not to overload anything. I hooked everything back up, and started it up. Thought I fixed it for a brief second, got 117 volts, but it immediately started slowly dropping back down to 70. Tried another method, where with the engine off, I plug in a typical drill, and while holding the drill's power switch, I hand crank the drill in reverse for a little bit (like 15 - 20 seconds), and then start the welder up. That too had limited success, started out around 96, and once again dropped to 70.

Did any of that make sense to anyone here? Does it sound like a typical problem? I'm thinking maybe a bad capacitor or two, if not, it could be circuit board or regulator. Any thoughts?
 

zman111666

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Thanks for that much, anyway. I'm trying to avoid signing up for an extra forum about welders, so I thought I'd take a shot here. I went ahead and told the customer he's going to have to take it to a "real" generator shop. No harm, he brings me lots of stuff to fix, and I don't charge for things I can't repair.
 

bertsmobile1

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Thanks for that much, anyway. I'm trying to avoid signing up for an extra forum about welders, so I thought I'd take a shot here. I went ahead and told the customer he's going to have to take it to a "real" generator shop. No harm, he brings me lots of stuff to fix, and I don't charge for things I can't repair.

Not sure how things work in the USA but my public liability insurance will not cover me for electrical faults in generators tat injure customers so I do not touch the electrics other than to tell the customer it is faulty & direct them to an electrician.
A dead short can cause generators to explode and being a welder it should be able to wack out 100A or better
 

zman111666

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Not sure how things work in the USA but my public liability insurance will not cover me for electrical faults in generators tat injure customers so I do not touch the electrics other than to tell the customer it is faulty & direct them to an electrician.
A dead short can cause generators to explode and being a welder it should be able to wack out 100A or better

That's the way I went in the end. You are right, no sense in me trying too hard to fix something I am not certified for, and where there may be a liability.
 

zman111666

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Just a follow-up:
The customer did go to a generator shop, and got back to me with the results. It turns out it was a faulty capacitor, not one from the big 4 capacitor bank I was talking about, but a smaller capacitor by itself tucked away in a corner. Brushless generators depend on this capacitor to charge the exciter field. One that sits for a long time can be re-energized by hand cranking a drill in reverse, but if that doesn't work, it's time for a new capacitor. Cheap and easy to fix (now that I know), no messing with anything sensitive. A little later I had a smaller generator come in with the same problem, was able to breeze through that one.
Thank you all for your input.
 

reynoldston

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Last week I had a 1400 Watt Champion brushless generator in my shop that didn't generate. I found a broken wire in the stator that went to the capacitor. Generators aren't too bad to work on. I find they have more engine problems then electrical seeing they sit with old gas in them for long periods of time not used.
 
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