If the generator is really 400 or is the meter reading harmonics
or noise on the line.

If Air Force it can be 400 so it would drive stuff from or to the
planes. They used 400 cycles because the transformer cores are
smaller and that was a major thing in an airplane.

Ships on the other hand tried 28 cycles but it was to dangerous
as it isn't a skin effect shock - but the accidental shocks / shorts
the 28 dives down to the marrow of the bone and then burns back out.

My dad was bumped into a 28 cycle generator and lost the marrow in
his right arm. Ships wanted it - large transformers were just ballast.
They aborted the project.

Martin

On 9/13/2011 12:54 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I have an old Yamaha 2600 watt generator. When I bought it years ago
it was awesome. I was even able to run my compressor off of it in a
pinch. It was clean too. Computers TVs. No issue. I haven't fired it
up in several years, but last year we had a power failure at the house
for 3/4 day, and I tried to run our fridge off of it, The fridge never
started. It ran lights just fine. and I was able to run my table saw
or my band saw, but they just didn't sound right. I pulled out my old
Radio Shack meter flipped it to frequency mode and checked it. Yep 400
hz. This meter very reliabley shows household 110 at 59-60 so I know
its not out in left field.

Where do I start looking to fix the generator?

Well, I took you guys at the guess that the generator just wasn't
generating very clean power anymore, and plugged in the fridge in my
shop during the recent southwest power debacle. Then I moved the all the
soft groceries out of the house fridge with its fancy computer displays
and controls. The fridge in the shop started up and ran just fine for
the duration of the outage.