Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

[Ksweet]

Hi,
My Name is Kevin Sweet and I am the Vice President of a service dealer who also proviedes maintenance and installation of CNG pump stations. Whith the issues that are happening with Fuelmaker does anyone know any other sources to locate service parts from anywhere else or from the supplier who makes these components for fuel maker?

[cnghal]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Ahh....the question of the month!
Answer: Scrounge and wait for the dust to settle on the FM liquidation.

Kevin, welcome to the frey!

[sdickie]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Does anyone have the diagnostic software for the industrial VRA?

Or does anyone know where I can get a copy?

I was just informed that the VRA has an hour meter on the motor, when the meter hits 4000 hrs it disables the unit. Even though the motor could run for another 4000 hrs.

The world may be experiencing a financial crisis, and we are cutting hrs here as well.

I would hate to be the one who has to shut the entire plant down because an hour meter reached its limit and shut the fuel source off.

We use cng to power our fork trucks here in a paper mill.

If anyone has any information that may be of assistance please let me know.

[cnghal]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Industrial, Do you mean FMQ 8-36?
As far as I remember, there is no software, just a hand terminal that wasn't very cheap that the FM dealers have.
As far as the hour meters, they are NVRAM chips that plug into the mainboard and stop at 50 hours to timeout and have to be reset to get the last 50 hours.
I heard some chatter last year about new/replacement chips out on the market. I had thought of doing replacements and writing some software to replace the terminal but no one wanted to lend me a unit to reverse engineer a solution.
Maybe it's time.

[Gerben]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Others can reset those chips as well but they don't seem want to be a FM competitor for this service. Wait a month.

[Bob Hatton]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Metooinc has 90-100 C3's and parts for all.
Metooinc also has two doxn FM4's with parts.
Fuelmaker test kits,
as well as C3 and FM4 indoor refueling panels,
methane detectors,
and stainless steel tubing for indoor refueling/
single hoses
Dual hoses for C3’s
We have manuals for C3's - installation, operating and servicing
We have manuals for installation of the indoor refueling
We have manuals for FM4's

[email protected]

[OILCAN]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

Guess I'm not the only one with the "fuelmaker" woes.I am the mech for a fleet of cng powered lift trucks in Ontario. Our compressors are fmq-10. Some of the parts are available outside fm, & others can be repaired. The big prob is the compressor itself. It is programed to shut down at 4000 hrs, regardless of its condition. (a designed flaw?). The compressor apparently has a much longer life than that . In the present situation, a reset of the hr meter could solve the prob for a while , if the software was available. Anyone have any ideas? As for myself, I'm starting to put some of our trucks back on propane in case this problem doesn't get resolved soon. Any info would be appreciated thanx

[Bob Hatton]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

[email protected] has the following Fuelmaker products and parts for sale:

Each unit is tested and in running condition before shipping.

FM4’s with 2400 hrs remaining
C3’s with various hours remaining goes

Electronics modules, control modules and compressor modules for C3's and FM4's
electric motors for C3's
Fans for Fm4's
We also have fuelmaker FM4 programmers,
Fuelmaker test kits,
C3 and FM4 indoor refueling panels,
methane detectors,
and stainless steel tubing for indoor refueling/

single hoses from 3 metres to 8 metres
dual hoses for C3’s
insulated hoses

[rgliedt]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

I have a problem on a brand new FMQ2-36 that I just unboxed and hooked up today. The unit ran 20-30 minutes touble free and then started faulting out with a green flashing light. Holding the stop button yeilded a code of yellow-steady, green steady, and red flashing. I did not find that code detail in the book. If I open the cabinet and drop the board down it will run and I have not yet gotten it to fault out while both cabinet and board are open. I am currently testing it to see if I put the board back into position and leave the cabinet open if it will it stop and fault out.

Update - The unit filled to 3100 psi - the night was cool, and shut off with out any faults. The
cabinet was left open, the fan is blowing a good hard stream of air, but the computer board was
closed up.

Thanks for any help.

RG

[siai47]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

There is a description of the indication you observed in the FM service manual. It is "no storage of operating hours during last power failure" and listed on page 15 of the manual. Now, whatever that means is for a fuelmaker guru to figure out, however it makes sense that you might have had a power interruption or spike during operation, or (seeing how it is new) there might be a connector or pin not fitting properly. The book says to just restart the unit. Be carefull , but if it keeps happening, wiggle and pull on the electrical connectors, and move the main board while the unit is running and see if you can get the same fault.

[rgliedt]

Re: Dealing with the Fuelmaker problems

The fault continued to appear. I have had to scrap the sale of another FMQ and rob the board from it. Results strongly indicate that the new unit has a bad control board. It is functioning fine with the older board. Now where is that warranty statement in my book?