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Picking up the beast

A project log for Vacuum System for Deposition

I have been putting a system together for the past few years to do different kinds of deposition.

jerry-biehlerJerry Biehler 09/12/2015 at 06:320 Comments

Wednesday I drove up to Marysville, WA from Beaverton, OR to pick up an old PU-26A/U genset that was on craigslist. Apparently it has been serving as a standby generator at the Lake Goodwin Fire Dept up until about 8 years ago when they finally got something newer. It has been converted to propane with a Century valve, regulator, and carb. They guy I got it from got it from the guy who got it from the FD and he managed to get it running. I paid $550 for it.


It needed new hoses bad, it has the M38 Willys engine in it and the little bypass line was rotted though. I replaced all those lines and installed a new fan belt. I pulled the thermostat off and checked it, old bellows style, still works. But I just couldn't keep the thing running. Eventually found the propane hose was full of dirt, some bugs must have decided to try to make a nest in there.


Video of first run, generates just fine.



I noticed some noise in the exhaust, today I traced down a couple errant wires, picked up some Automate 2245 plugs from Napa (Less than $8 ea!), and popped the side cover off and adjusted the valves. There was little or no lash in every exhaust valve. Put it all back together and it seems to run smoother.



Next thing to do is to build an exhaust system, Does anybody know id the M38 engines used 1-1/2" or 1-3/4" exhaust? I looked it up and couldn't find anything.

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