OLD MILITARY ONAN GENERATOR

I have came across an old gasoline engine generator set that was manufactured for the " Navy Department- Bureau of Ships." It was made by D.W. Onan and Sons. It was designed spcifically for tbw-5 radio equipment, it is 14 d.c.volt, or 120 a.c. volts at believe it or not 800 hertz. It is a 4h.p.,2 cylinder opposed piston 4 cycle air cooled engine with a westinghouse generator attached. It turns 2,666 rpm on the governor. It runs great! The only problem with it when I got my hands on it after I got the engine running was that the generator lost it's residual magnatisum. I took the battery out of my bike and with the generator running, put 12 volts across one of the brushes and it has been making power ever since. My problem is, I am having trouble getting info on the generator such as how old it is, and the possibility of obtaining a tech. manual. I contacted Onan but did not have much luck since all of my numbers are old Military serial number or type numbers. Anyone with a web site or phone number recommendation, or any info at all would be appreciated. Thanks

Give us the tag info, maybe someone can decipher it.

Thanks Gus for the quick response. The generator has two name data plates. It looks like one is just for the engine, and one is for the entire unit, I will give both starting with the engine:

TYPE CDO-18010-A SERIAL # 182428 4 H.P./4 CYCLE/2 CYLINDER/ 2,666 R.P.M. MANUFACTURED FOR: NAVY DEPARTMENT-BUREAU OF SHIPS/ BY D.W. ONAN AND SONS CONTRACTOR: WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING CO.

Here is the other name data plate:

TYPE CDO-73004-B SERIAL# 880 GASOLINE ENGINE GENERATOR SET 190 POUNDS A UNIT OF MODEL TBW-5 RADIO EQUIPMENT

Thats everything on the unit. Thanks.

Much of that WW-2 vintage equipment produced 400 cycle power to be compatable with aircraft systems. An amateur radio friend of mine, K7NEW, some years ago had a unit that matched your description including the 800 cycle rating that he obtained through the Navy MARS program. Since this unit was designed for a particular piece of radio equipment, they could use any power line frequency they wanted. The 800 cycle stuff could use smaller transformers and the filters in the power supplies could be smaller also. 800 cycle equipment wasn't very common.

Not that it tells you anything about the generator, but the radio equipment it once powered was a Navy transmitter that operated on frequencies of 0.35 to 1 Mhz and 3 to 18 Mhz using morse code at 100 watts and on voice at 25 watts. It probably weighed as much as a hundred pounds or so. This was typical of the early 1930's, or 1940's type of military radio equipment and it may have even seen some use during World War Two.

Somewhere on the unit there should be a plate giving the TM reference or the Navy BuPers manual number. There is a gov't agency in VA which can supply manuals for all sorts of obsolete mil equip. They supplied me with 2 manuals for my 5kw genset built in 1964 (since sold). For the life of me I can't find the name/phone # for the agency. Will keep looking.

Martin, that gov't agency is the National Technical Information Service in Springfield, VA. It's an agency of the Commerce Dept. That have a website: http://www.ntis.gov/products/milpubs.htm

I was hoping you might be able to help us. We are looking on how to go about getting parts, sheet metal and assecotories for a World war 2 GM generator motor 6016E.

Can you help?

[rogerbrown]

I have a manual for the generator you refer to. It lists component parts for the generator and driving engine along with tuning and maintenance data, etc. If you would like a Xerox copy of the pertenant pages contact me at:
rogerbrown@gci.net