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We have just finished a complete refurbishment and overhaul of one of our compact generator systems. TBF, this one is a bit special, in that it was gifted to me by my late Father in Law. I wanted to keep it working as it provides a connection to him. It has actually turned out a bit like Triggers broom in Only Fools and Horses. It has had a new cabinet, radiator, alternator and control systems. If the engine blows then there really isn’t much left of the original.

We actually ended up using this one much more than we expected, due to its low running costs, making it perfect for smaller events such as a coffee cart hire, etc.

What happened was the unit we were using was designed to demount from its transport trailer into the back of one of our vans. This worked great, up until the original casing fell apart due to corrosion. Being a Kubota engine there was plenty of life left in the actual unit itself.

It was built on four castors, up until one corner fell off and it came back on three wheels. Luckily whilst obtaining a new generator to build into the rear of our fire engine, we noticed that the dealer we were dealing with had a large supply of new cases for compact generators.

We obtained one of these, which were priced at a really keen price point, and set about the construction. The cases were pretty complete except for things like control panels, door locks, etc. We managed to track these down, with a delay on waiting for a delivery from China for some parts unobtainable over here.

The unit when it was constructed looked superb. Unfortunately following the advice of some experts to bond the Earth line to the Neutral, a requirement in most generators, the unit went bang. Seems that on centre tapped alternators this is a big no no.

So back to our supplier for a new alternator. Unfortunately when we removed the case to wire the new one up, we found that it also was a centre tapped alternator. Cue another trip up north to obtain a non centre tapped version.

So far so good. Except when we came to assemble it, the coupling system didn’t meet up. Seems our original unit had a recessed flywheel, which left the tapered shaft mount about 5 mmm short.

Cue yet another trip to swap flywheels for the correct one. This one happily did fit, and everything went together perfectly.

Well almost. Whilst screwing in the Earth point connection, the end fell off my screwdriver, and into the alternator internals. Meaning another complete strip down of the cabinet, to then strip the alternator down to retrieve said fallen off bit.

Happily this time everything did go together properly. We dropped the unit onto its original trailer, necessitating a few minor alterations to the fastening system and Bob’s your Uncle.