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GM DIESEL and Westinghouse Flexarc welder 1945

Todd
about 25 years ago I came across 1-71 units at marine scrap dealer
--connected to 10 kw gen heads-- did not see one running

jager--send me pm if you are interested in purchase

jh
 
I've got one of those engines in front of a Lincoln SAE 400, dated 1967. Up to about 350 amps the engine is louder than the air arc. Mine was sold to the military by Libby, mounted on a 4-wheel trailer.

What is the deal with the huge stack? Did someone actually think a muffler would quiet a 2 cycle? The sheet metal is cool, the angled cover over the generator looks like it should be the front. Give it a steam locomotive type wheel set and a cow catcher and it would really make people scratch their heads.
 
I've got one of those engines in front of a Lincoln SAE 400, dated 1967. Up to about 350 amps the engine is louder than the air arc. Mine was sold to the military by Libby, mounted on a 4-wheel trailer.

What is the deal with the huge stack? Did someone actually think a muffler would quiet a 2 cycle? The sheet metal is cool, the angled cover over the generator looks like it should be the front. Give it a steam locomotive type wheel set and a cow catcher and it would really make people scratch their heads.

Friend bought same unit last year, "just because"....
So I'm welding some grab hooks on the bucket on his loader with the thing.

Only have about 25' of cable to use, and there is no "idler" circuit.

Jeeshus, trying to weld them hooks on with that welder behind me, I thought
I was gonna get run over by a city bus any second.....:skep:

FWIW at the same auction where he bought this one, was the SAE-200,
but with a 2-53 engine.

And I went up to Elmira to look at a Detroit powered Hobart welder, but being
a bit newer, you could see it was actually a Miller big 40 with bronze paint.
 
Detroit Diesels have the well-deserved nickname of "screaming Jimmy". Probably, the 71 series was the most popular high speed diesel engine in the USA, if not the world, for many years.

We have a mess of Detroit powered maintenance of way equipment on our railroad, all of it being the 53 series engines. These seem to be fairly bulletproof.

I like the starter switch arrangement on the welder in this thread. As foolproof and simple as it gets. I think some old cars, trucks, and heavy equipment used a direct push to work the starter contactor. I recently had some intermittent starting issues with my Harley. I did the obvious, changed the starter relay, and the problem remained. I went online and discovered a lot of Harley owners have the same problem. So much so that there are aftermarket end covers with "plungers" for the starter solenoids. These end covers have a plunger to enable the solenoid core and contact disc to be manually pushed in to make up and fire the starter motor. I replaced the solenoid core and contact disc, cleaned up the contacts, and installed a new core spring and one of the aftermarket solenoid covers. Now, I have the same starting arrangement on my Hog as a backup, as is on the welder's Jimmy.

Years ago, I was on a job where some dredging was being done. In one barge, there was a steel deck house. In the deck house, there was a 71 series Detroit diesel driving a generator. It was an ex WWII US military genset. What made it unique- at least to me- was it had a hydraulic starter motor. There were some hydraulic accumulators and a hand pump. One of the dredger crew pumped up the hand hydraulic pump to charge the accumulators. He then spritzed some ether into the air cleaner and hit the starter valve. The Detroit diesel spun right up and popped off. I thought that was about the slickest starting system I'd seen. No batteries, no external source of compressed air or other energy other than a guy's arm to pump up the accumulators. Between the bulletproof and forgiving nature of a Detroit Diesel- they seem to run despite minimal maintenance or no maintenance- and the hydraulic starter, it seemed like the ideal diesel to have if you were needing something basic and dependable.

I like the old welder as it has plenty of copper and nothing electronic. It looks like it could burn some heavy electrode or pull an air-arc gouge all day long- assuming the leads were long enough to get away from the smoke and noise of the Detroit. If those ex-US gov't gensets with the 1-71's were anywhere near here and in reasonably serviceable (or able to be put right without a major outlay), I'd grab one. Probably have to mount it on a heck of a concrete inertia block to keep it from hopping off and taking the slack out of the fuel line and wiring to the generator breaker. Probably need a muffler the size of a semi's to quiet the thing down so we could use it for backup power at our house. But a one-lung Detroit does sound interesting and dependable.
 
Bought some toolboxes from a that was supposed to give me the contact of another guy that had a running 16v92 for sale at scrap price.

Never heard back, which I suppose is a good thing because I really don't need a 1472 cu in, 5000lb engine.
 
Probably need a muffler the size of a semi's to quiet the thing down

Muffler? Ha!

You can pipe that exhaust to the other side of the world and you will find not much of a Detroit's noise even comes from the exhaust. Everything about that engine is just mechanically noisy.
 
I have one of the 2-71 Delco RR generators, the noise level isn't to bad with a 4020 JD diesel muffler. Then again I am hard of hearing.
 
I watched the vid of the Emerson and Matkin company generators.

When he said they were in Pocatello.... and I saw what they were selling... I put two and two together.

I'm pretty sure Pocatello, Idaho was a major hub for the PFE (Pacific Fruit Express) refrigerator cars ... SP, UP, WP railroads.

I bet theses guys got a good deal on all those takeoffs from those reefer cars as they've switched to the Thermoking units...

A little story. Back when I was still a switchman on the Union Pacific, one night I was working in the yard here in town and we were pulling a track full of cars out to switch it out... I was standing down in the track a ways, with my lantern under my arm and watching each car go by to check it off the list. The track I was standing next to also had cars in it. There is not much room between the stationary freight cars on the track behind me and the moving cars on the other. You can stand in the middle and touch the cars on both tracks with outstretched arms.
As the cars were being pulled past me, a long string of 5 or 6 loaded reefer cars with those screaming Detroit diesels came rolling by. The engineer pulling them out at about 10 mph... you have to swing the lantern light beam back and forth to catch the initials and numbers of the cars as they go by...then look down at your list and find that car number and check it off.. 10mph is quite fast doing that.
So, it's real dark down between those cars in the track... no light but your lantern...those Detroits screaming.... you're in a zone.. concentrating on the list, looking for numbers with a piddly little 6 volt light, not much room for error... you're hoping the list you have is correct because it's what you go by when they start switching the cars to the different tracks marked on the list.

I'm swiveling back and forth... roaring engines, rolling freight cars are 2 foot away from me....checking the list... swivel back towards the next car... and my light shines in the face of this hobo standing right next to me.

That sonofabitch scared the shit outta me. I screamed out loud and hollered at him "What T.F. are you doing, Jesus F'n Christ... Goddam, you scared the shit outta me... Don't EVER do that to a guy!!!!"

He jumps back and says "whoa, hold on... I didn't mean to scare you.. I just want to know which of these tracks will be going to Fort Worth."

My heart was pounding so fast... him being down there in the dark, all that racket from those Detroits.. he could see me and my lantern light, but no way I could have seen him...
I calmed down and pointed out which track had cars for F.W. and he was on his way. No harm, no foul.. made a good story to tell, at least.
Tha
 
diesel exhaust odor

the noise signature of two stroke GM/Detroit engines is well known

less publicized is the nature of exhaust odor characteristics
of different engine series--with major grouping of two versus four stroke engines

I became aware around 1960 of odor signature linked with two cycle diesels
as compared to my Caterpillar D2 crawlers

I was operating Allis HD 5 in my Dad's quartz crushing operation--this crawler equipted with the 2-71 GM diesel

two stroke Detroit engines are identified as having sweet exhaust by some exposed to stack discharge---this includes me
as a younger enthusiast this odor was not objectionable--but I do not care for any form of diesel exhaust now

around 60 years ago Cornell University created an olfactorium---a research facility in which humans were placed and exposed to controlled concentrations of olfactants--odorants ---including diesel exhaust

studies often paid for by diesel engine companies--but no real alteration in
exhaust outcome occured--

one finding in this line of research did emerge-- loss of smell and brain disease

a few years back we were dining in a roadside restaurant-- a diesel delivery truck passing within a few feet of the group drew disapproval from all but Joyce--she had recently lost smell--within 18 months she perished from rapid onset Alzheimers
 
I have one of the 2-71 Delco RR generators, the noise level isn't to bad with a 4020 JD diesel muffler. Then again I am hard of hearing.

The RR generators are 6 pole units, so they give 60 hz at 1200 rpm. It helps keep the noise down, as well as extending the service interval.

You can always tell an old Detroit driver, they all say the same thing. Huh? Deaf as a post, every last one of them.

JH, very interesting link between loss of smell and brain disease.
 
JH, very interesting link between loss of smell and brain disease.

Gbent/Jholland -

That is interesting. On a sample of one, I recall a friend at work being bothered that his sense of smell was all screwed up. About a year later I was one of his pall bearers - brain cancer.

Dale
 
Bought some toolboxes from a that was supposed to give me the contact of another guy that had a running 16v92 for sale at scrap price.

Never heard back, which I suppose is a good thing because I really don't need a 1472 cu in, 5000lb engine.
Actually, you do. You just don't know it yet.
 
That machine was built by Libby. They bolted together more combinations of engines and generators under those housings than I can count, both gasoline and Diesel. The housing was always the same.

BIG CAUTION- those machines are old, and the quality of the varnish securing the windings in place leaves a lot to desire in 2017. Before you spin the machine at speed, a full inspection and assessment of the rotating windings should be made. When a winding blows out the failure is catastrophic to the machine.
 
One of the salvage yards we sometimes visit.......because they will set things aside that somebody may want.......have a real big grinder/pulverizer, whatever you want to call it, that they run the scrap through and sorts it out into piles. The first time we were there, while it was running, there was no doubt it was a Detroit powering it, but couldn't see it due to being on the backside of the operation. Finally asked the owner what he was powering it with, they had cut a locomotive in half and were powering it with that.
 
Libby Welding Co

Franz--your comments regarding Libby Welding Co are on target

this firm won multiple Dept of Defense contracts---and seemed to assemble
power units, gen sets, welders, etc out of second tier vendors
surplus---Hercules/White prime movers, Continental spark engines, and obsolete Lincoln welder/generator power heads

here is current google pic of Libby headquarters in Kansas City, Mo--plywood covering main entrance, roof with problems
 

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