Lincoln sa 200 questions

[Showdog75]

I just aquired a fixer upper 1982 sa200. I'm looking for some advice on common things to look at and give attention when bringing one of these puppys back to life. I bought it with out it running but really don't think much is in order to get it going. Right now I'm looking at a basic tune-up just to get it going and find out if it's a oil leaker or ....... I bought this thing at a bargain[understatement] but knew that it needed mucho cleaning and elbow grease. I have a small leak at the carb so I figure a rebuild kit is in order for sure as well as replacing all hoses and the belt , plugs, cap , etc etc. Anything simple I'm overlooking ? I'm hoping Sonora Iron and folks like him with a vast knowledge of this old iron will step in a give this rookie some advice. Thanks and go easy on me for asking a Lincoln question. Take it as a compliment to the Miller forum as you guys are the best.

[Sonora Iron]

Crank that baby over and see if she fires off!

[Sonora Iron]

First thing I'd do is remove the belly band and see if the brushes are clean and free. There are a lot of ways to go at this, but I guess the best thing to do is get it running first, then it is easier to see if it's going to weld. You could check to see if you have 40 ohms across the blue and brown wires coming out of the generator. But I've had this, and everything look great, just to go up in smoke when load banked!

[Rig Hand]

If you got the hood pulled you might as well drain and clean the fuel tank I'm sure its rusty on the inside. Clean it out good, throw some bolts and nuts in it and give it a shake. I thew a small magnet in mine next to the hole to catch some of the crud.

Check all the wires and replace the corroded and/or bare ones.

Look everywhere for mud dobers nests. Once its running there is all kinds of stuff to check, But we'll save that for another day.

[Showdog75]

Crank that baby over and see if she fires off!

I had to buy a new positive battery cable and tomorrow I'm gonna get a new cap and rotor. Battery is on the charger so I will hopefully give her a go tomorrow. It's got quite abit of rust and corrosion around the battery area so I'm gonna have to do a little fab work to get it all back in good order. I wonder how big of a chore it is to pull the engine/genny out of the frame to do a total frame off resto ? First things first I want to get this puppy fired up and see if it welds and go from there. This is gonna be a sickness I can already tell !

[Showdog75]

Btw what kind of oil do most guys run in these things ?

[Rig Hand]

Btw what kind of oil do most guys run in these things ?

I usually run 10W-30 unless she throws oil then I which to straight 30W

[Rig Hand]

I had to buy a new positive battery cable and tomorrow I'm gonna get a new cap and rotor. Battery is on the charger so I will hopefully give her a go tomorrow. It's got quite abit of rust and corrosion around the battery area so I'm gonna have to do a little fab work to get it all back in good order. I wonder how big of a chore it is to pull the engine/genny out of the frame to do a total frame off resto ? First things first I want to get this puppy fired up and see if it welds and go from there. This is gonna be a sickness I can already tell !

With the hood off and fuel tank removed and front panel removed, you "could" cut the center brace/ lifting eye, on each side and lift the engine and gen. out the top. Or you can cut the center brace down low and just build a new frame out of Sq. tubing, probably easier.

[Sonora Iron]

I run Castrol Heavy Duty straight 30 weight.

I have an overhead crane, I have taken the engine and generator out of the frame. If you don't remove the governor, and oil pan it's fairly tight going out the radiator end of the frame. If you do this be really careful of the oil pump pickup screen! I have a 4-way chain bridle I made up with a single D-ring to the hook of the crane with small shackles. The two short legs attach with short pieces of flatbar with two 7/16-inch holes drilled in each end. Remove the two upper 3/8-inch bolts , (9/16-inch wrench, one on each side) of the engine to generator plate, (flywheel cover) the other two longer chains attach to the generator feet with 1/2-inch eyebolts with shackles to the chain legs. Cut the chains to the proper length to pick engine and generator level. When removing the engine and generator out of the frame just use the two short chains, and a come-a-long from the hook of the crane to the exciter brush housing. This will allow you to get enough angle for the engine crank pulley to clear the radiator cross brace. Once you clear the radiator cross brace you'll have to spin the engine / generator enough and set it down on blocks, remove the come-a-long , and install the two longer chains to the generator feet. All this trouble because of the picking eye frame.

I found it's a lot easier to take a zip disk and slice out the welds on the picking eye frame to the main frame. Before doing this I suggest drilling four 25/64-inch holes in the picking eye frame, two on each side. I stagger the bolts holes, (not in a vertical straight line). Reason for the tight holes, and staggered holes is because the complete welder does not pick level, they always hang low on the generator end, even with an empty gas tank. So use really tight holes, and staggered last thing you want is to pick the welder from the picking eye, and have the picking eye frame shift and move the roof towards the radiator!

Trust me it is a lot easier in the long run to slice the four welds, and drill four holes in the picking eye frame.

[Jrc99408]

Its not that difficult to seperate the engine from the generator, just takes some finess, that way there you can do a good cleaning on everything, bills welding repair has a step by step process to do this, it worked pretty well for me. Dont get me wrong everyone of the peices weighs a ton.

[bellamachinery]

If the machine has set for any length of time, I would run a compression test on the cylinders. I have found a lot of stuck valves that way. Easiest way to unstick them is to pull the lifter cover that's behind the carb and using a nail bar, gently pry them down. You might have to pry them down several times to get them freed up. And before you try to start it, put some oil in each cylinder through the plug hole so the rings will have something between them and the cylinder wall.

[Sonora Iron]

Personally I wouldn't separate them unless I had to.
Two reasons:
Why do anymore work than you have to?
Why take a chance on damaging the shunts, or armatures? Now if you want to replace the bearing, that's another story.
Showdog57 if you decide to separate them, do not cut the fins in the generator to get at the bolts! Take all the bolts out of the flywheel housing, removing the 1 5/8-inch nut at the exciter, remove the washer, and use a wheel puller to push the armature shaft / engine forward, about 3 or 4-inches so you can get at the flywheel bolts.

If you're just going to paint it, it is easy to get a heavy coat of paint on everything needed without separating. Just my opinion.

[Showdog75]

Well I got her to belch a BUNCH of smoke and she rumbled to life. With that being said Ive got ALOT of work to do. I'm sure the gas tank and carb are much overdue some attention so I will order a carb kit and get to work. I cranked after I squirted a shot of ether to it and didn't run long so I'm pretty sure it's not getting fuel. With all the smoke that came out I'm gonna drain the oil and make sure it doesn't have water in it. I'd say it has sat in the weather for quite some time and that water has gotten down the exhaust. The air cleaner is also in desperate need of a thorough douching as well. Will there be a line in the bottom to fill the oil up to ? I figure just take the thing apart and clean with gas or such. When I pulled the bottom it looked like it had never been cleaned. How much oil will this girl hold ? Thanks guys for the help so far and check back in on my thread and keep up with the progress. I'm sure there will be many more questions. Btw is there any good literature on these puppys ?

[Sonora Iron]

Will there be a line in the bottom to fill the oil up to ?
How much oil will this girl hold ? Btw is there any good literature on these puppys ?

Yes there will.

5-quarts.

Go to the AWS forum, SA-200 Section, and look around there are several posts with links to PDF files with everything you'd ever want to know about these old girls. I have them saved, but don't know how to post them.

http://www.aws.org/cgi-bin/mwf/board_show.pl?bid=44

[Sonora Iron]

Here order this CD also.

http://www.weldmart.com/technical/manuals.htm