3000W Chinese Gensets Info.

allpraisebob wrote:

scottnjenrv wrote:
to Mr Wizzard, Professor95, or other electrical gurus,

I completed the rewire of my Power Pro 3500 today.
...
Now for the not-so-good news. Neither of my protection devices seems to work. I have two. First the mainline CB in the genset...

Leave the BROWN and BLUE wires that come from the generator head connected to the circuit breaker then parallel the RED wire with the BROWN wire at the plug(s) and the BLUE wire with the added on WHITE wire!!!. This is very important, hence the italics - the WHITE wire is bonded to the RED wire inside the wiring harness coming out of the back of the generator head. This connection needs to be broken, and the WHITE wire extended all the way to the front panel so it can be paralleled with the BLUE one.


allpraisebob,

I paralleled the RED and the BROWN at the CB input. I disconnected the WHITE from the RED in the genhead then I ran a new WHITE wire and paralleled it with the BLUE. I did not run the BLUE/WHITE (neutral) side of the circiut through the CB. I only ran the BROWN/RED (hot) side through. I jumpered both CBs to be in parallel.

This is electrically the same. It certainly works. Is it a safe connection?

Bill
(Scott's assistant for this project)

My second protection device is a GFI ... blah, blah, blah. Can anyone tell me what's going on here?

I did NOT notice when I opened the generator head up, but I imagine that the yellow/green wire is simply a chassis ground and therefore not "bonded" to the RED/WHITE "neutral". Connecting the BLUE wire side of the generator windings to the YELLOW/GREEN wire, or the chassis, would then provide the additonal return path for ground fault current just like in your service entrance. GFI's work by detecting an imbalance in current between the HOT and NEUTRAL wires (they don't actually need to be grounded to work, in other words!), but if neutral isn't connected to ground at any point then fault current can not flow between hot and ground either. This is not such a big deal, though, because without a return path to follow, the current from the generator can't shock you anyway! ;)

I DID notice when I opened up the gen head. The YELLOW/GREEN wire is in fact a chassis ground and not connected electrically to either the RED/WHITE neutral in the original wiring or the BLUE/WHITE neutral in my modified wiring. In fact I measured about 60v between the YELLOW/GREEN wire and the BLUE/WHITE neutral in my genset. Are you saying that I should connect the BLUE/WHITE neutral to the YELLOW/GREEN? What would happen to the 60v I was measuring there? Would this be a safer connection than I have now?

thanks, Bill
(Soctt's helper for thie project)