ok, i wasted a lot of your time with bad info. i feel i didnt waste my time, as i learned a ton of **** about generators . bottom line, i was operating on bad information. i had written to miller with some questions on how the machine operated. i gave them the serial #. i was told it generates 120/240v power at "idle" 2000 rpm. then you kicked it up to 3600 rpm to get 80v ac open voltage at the cables. mine didnt. i dug thru various roughneck and the later blue star schematics. it turns out my unit is a 2 pole rotor, and will only get to 60HZ running at 3600 rpm. the blue star, and earlier roughnecks have a 4 pole rotor. i say that because there are youtube videos of roughnecks with multiple cable jacks for various voltages. in the video , those did 60 hz at 2000 ( idle). additionally confusing, what engine idles at 2000? anyway, mine has the big selector. my friend has a blue star 2E and i went there today. i could clearly see inside a 4 pole rotor. all the miller diagrams i looked at show a generic field drawing, no mention of poles. now looking thru the parts diagrams, you can see a 4 pole rotor in the early roughneck 2e, a 2 pole rotor in my later 2e, then back to 4 pole in the blue stars. ps- why the hell would they downgrade from a 4 pole to a 2 pole? at 3600 rpm, this motor is screaming. i would not use it as a generator in a blackout unless i really had no choice. anyway, i set it up to run full at 3600, and open welding voltage is good, 120/240 output is good. quite frankly, if i knew it was 2 pole, i might have passed on it. still , i paid 150 bucks for it, 200 for a new ignition system, so no real complaints. ps- i spoke a miller guy, and told him there was no way my unit had a 4 pole rotor in it, even if he said it did. he later emailed me a spec sheet of rotor readings, etc., and confirmed in the email it was a 2 pole rotor. i was scared ****less that i has some kind of frequency loss due to a bad rotor, and running it to 60HZ would blow it apart. i ended up buying an optical rpm tester, and it confirms 3600 rpm at 60 hz. . when its running it sounds like 36,000 , the sucker is really cranking. anyone with any questions about these things, let me know. i know it inside out now.
thanks to all