Canadian Airforce Generator....

There's almost no telling what voltages might be possible with an old military set. I have heard of everything from 120 delta 3 phase to 230/400 wye 3 phase in that age sets.

Most equipment made for the military will have schematics or other information on placards inside the enclosure. Maybe there's a TM number listed so you could find one.

If all else fails, look at the generator output leads as they leave the generator casing and see how many there are.

If 3 or 4 leads,
3 phase, you have a single voltage set (voltage is ???? look on a tag somewhere)
single phase, you could have 120/240, 120 only or 240 only, just depends on the stator design and how you connect the leads together.

If 9 or 10 leads (always 3 phase, not reconnectable to single phase), you have a reconnectable "wye" set, usually capable of 120/208 and 277/480 depending on how the leads are connected

If 12 leads, it is usually possible to reconnect for all the above voltages both single phase and 3 phase. You would want to follow a schematic if you can find one.

The governor on a generator will have less "droop" than a standard industrial engine so it maintains the set speed and Hz of the AC electric output closely as the load changes. You should see a Hz or cycles per second meter on the panel, usually with several bars that will vibrate as the AC frequency matches the frequency that each bar is tuned for. The meter will sometimes vibrate even when there's no AC electrical output so make sure there's an AC signal to follow before you do much adjusting on the speed unless you have a good tach you can use on the engine. Most sets will turn either 1200 rpm or 1800 rpm for 60 hz and either 1000 or 1500 for 50 hz.

CC, most all the generators had a 3% droop gov. setup where tractors & industrial engnes were a 10% droop gov. Cat also had some O% droop for special applications & we had some in two high school tech.schools here a few years ago & was called a total energy system as they used exhaust & cooling heat to help heat the big high schools. They said they needed the 0% droop to operate their computers & electronics correctly & they had an electronic gov. on them to sense the least droop to keep it at O.

John, did you find anymore info about the genset u mention in this very, very old post? Here's my Cat/Canadian genny i been working on. Here's my posting on it. http://www.acmoc.org/bb/showthread.php?31118-Cat-D311-gen-set-1952-Canadian-Military-NATO-Cold-War-machine&highlight=

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/VLSdS8T1/DSC02277.jpg[/img]

CC, most all the generators had a 3% droop gov. setup where tractors & industrial engnes were a 10% droop gov. Cat also had some O% droop for special applications & we had some in two high school tech.schools here a few years ago & was called a total energy system as they used exhaust & cooling heat to help heat the big high schools. They said they needed the 0% droop to operate their computers & electronics correctly & they had an electronic gov. on them to sense the least droop to keep it at O.

All the CAT Gensets I have started over the years were not configured for Droop. If it is a multiple paralleled island setup, then Yes they are set up for Droop. The standby's that are started and paralleled prior to the outage, then take over the load, do not Droop.

Been a while since I put the transformer on my D4 generator to bring the voltage from 480 to 240 using only 2 of the 3 legs. I also built a panel with 2 of every kind of plug that might be used with a volt gauge. Also added direct start but rope start pony still works. Works like a charm. It’s running my water 240 water well, RV AC unit and battery charger this last summer.

I’ve considered selling it if your interested.

Nice 1, how old is it?