Im interested in using a diesel generator for back up power at home ,the generator head Ill need to find used or at some construction supply house.

This has been talked about before.
Yet after the subject is talked about the ones who start the Threads never get back to use on what the actually did.
The Governor inside of the Fuel Injection Pump is not setup for the type of control that a Generator needs.
The Older Thermoking Gen sets used to use Mercedes Engines (OM636 I believe). If you found one it would already have a Generator and the type of Fuel Injection Pump and Governonr needed.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Are you asking or telling? Remark is difficult to understand!

__________________
Junqueyardjim
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis



1983 Mercedes W123 240D 4 Speed 285,000 on the road with a 617 turbo, beautiful butter yellow, license plate # 83 240D INDIANA

2003 Jaguar Type X, AWD. beautiful, good mileage,
Mom's car, but I won't let her drive it!

Yes, I have thought about it. Either a MB or a VW. Good stuff.

__________________
83 300TD (need rear wiper assembly dead or alive)
84 300SD Daily driver
85 300TD almost 400k miles and driven daily.
98 E300D *sold
86 300SDL *sold and made flawless 10 hour journey to new home.

Good point, When I think about it a reefer unit engine would have too have the same type of governing system as a gen set. there must be piles of those MB reefer engines sitting in a warehouse someplace.

__________________


1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

How do people regulate the speed of those tractor-powered PTO generators? It seems to me that the tractor's engine speed would get pulled down as the load is increased. If you have a constant load, then of course the throttle can be adjusted to show the correct 60-hz on the generator.

But is there a system on a tractor PTO generator to account for varying loads?

So I guess the message here is that you will be OK with a standard MB engine if you are driving a generator that sees a relatively constant load. I don't know how you can do that with a house because the heavy loads (water heater, pump, AC, heat pump, etc.) cycle on and off.

Ken300D

__________________
--------------------------
1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

Tractors have constant speed governors on them that maintain the chosen RPM regardless of the load, up to the HP limit of the engine.

I wonder if it's possible to dial down the RPM limiter on the stock MB injection pump and run it wide open all the time...

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

In my humble opinion If the motor is free , the generator is near free and your spare time is free I can see maybe doing this. It is possible to buy a used diesel generator in good running condition for less than $1500 which will run better and be more practical than anything you can put together. I paid $1300 for my 15Kw Onan marine diesel. I have since seen good runners for little over half that which would do nicely. There are quite a few technical problems to resolve not the least of which is generator regulation. If you want this to work when your wife is home and you are not I would suggest sticking to a commercial product. Just my 2 cents worth. Cheers Dan

__________________
It's always something simple
91 300D 603.960 (from japan) 194K
92 Toyota Diesel Landcruiser HDJ81-t 116K
02 Golf TDI new head courtesy of PO
87 300D
97 BMW 525 TDS Wagon 5spd
bunch of Onan and other diesel generators

This is not necessarily true, I have found 12 and none had that attached

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

They are in graveyards in Florida

__________________
Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

OK.
It could be the price of scrap Copper has gone up so much that an old Generator (actually an Alternator) is worth more as Scrap than trying to sell it as a used Generator.

__________________
84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

The governor could easily be solved by a belt driven governor. Mitsubishi uses them on many industrial engines, and they are very cheap. It is about the size and shape of a small alternator, and mounts the same way.
There is a linkage that attaches to the throttle, which can be adjusted to hold any rpm (usually 1800rpm for a generator). I have used them on several generator projects, and they work well.

Stamford/Newage probably makes a generator end that would bolt up to the mercedes flywheel. Another option is to use a cog belt drive, like the blowers on hotrods. I have a little generator with a cog belt setup, that has about 15,000 hours on the original belt! They are not very sensitive to tension as v-belts are.

I know Mercedes engines were used in alot of marine generators, back in the early 80's. I have worked on a number of them over the years, and they are very good generators, just expensive to repair. Like the cars, they are very long lived.

__________________
83 300TD "Nassau Jitney"

The 2.2L engine was used in a lot of reefers during the 80s. Probably the best place to find the parts are in reefer/trailer junkyards, and if that doesn't work, pay top dollar through the trailer shops that you find off the freeways.

__________________
1983 300D, the "Avocado"
1976 240D, 4-spd the "Pumpkin", SOLD to Pierre
1984 190D, 2.2L, 5-spd, my intro to MBZ diesels, crashed into in 2002

Also . . . you may want to look on eBay for a used APU from a truck. New, they are $10K, but when the truckers try to upgrade their trucks, and find they're not going to get anything from the dealership for their APU, they sell them on Ebay. Most of them now are outfitted with 110V power.

__________________
1983 300D, the "Avocado"
1976 240D, 4-spd the "Pumpkin", SOLD to Pierre
1984 190D, 2.2L, 5-spd, my intro to MBZ diesels, crashed into in 2002

Thank you all ,good info ,I dont see them at the yard very much ,but when I do I start thinking of how much money I have at my disposal.