Restoring a Lincoln SA-200 F163

[SkyHarborCowboy]

Are there any sites dedicated to this model and/or good sources for parts and accessories? Any helpful information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Joe

[Sberry]

I bought the few things I needed from the dealer.

[SkyHarborCowboy]

What was the condition before you started your rebuild?

Joe

[Sberry]

Mine ran fine, was just homely from being towed on a trailer down winter roads. I cleasned it up, fixed a little sheet metal, put in a oil press light, hood latches, repainted the trailer and added a battery box on the trailer instead of using the factory one on the machine.

[toolaholic]

cary i have a lincoln weld n power like yours i believe. i bought it new about 20 yrs ago. i special ordered it with a 22 hp 2 cyl onan ,and it,s been great. now you have the large lincoln and the smaller one. which one do you use most and why please?
also guys , how much are the used sa200 going for thank,s

[Sberry]

I have 3 portables, the weldanpower, a GS8000 and the sa200. I use the 8000 most of the time anymore as it rides on my service truck. I had the weldanpower in the back of a pickup for several years. The 200 was the first machine I bought, looking back it was kind of foolish and if I was to advise someone I would say get something light with AC power. The Sa is great when I need to take and park on big jobs but I rarely use it. Its fixed up now so I hate to sell it. I may make some changes and get back in the biz more, I am not sure yet. I have a few things I need to finish up then I will sit down and make some decisions. The trailer the sa is on rides super, independant suspension.

[SkyHarborCowboy]

Any idea how much the SA-200 weighs?

Joe

[Sberry]

About 1200 lbs, basically.

[ventureline]

What parts do you need?

[Chrisp]

www.weldmart.com is a very good source for hard to find and after market parts. He also has upgrade kits available for several different systems on SA 200's.

[Brad Blazer]

My dad passed away last year and nobody wanted his old welder so I brought it home from WI to NC last month. Its a dirty, rusty SA-200-F162 (5108) that hadn't been run in 25-30 years. I ordered the free disk from Weldmart and between that and the Lincoln website I had pretty much all of the manuals. Happily the engine turned pretty easily by putting a rod thru the hand crank adapter. I poured a little deisel in the cylinders and hooked up a battery and it cranked at a good rate. I cleaned out the gas tank, filter, and lines, changed the oil - it takes a Fram C3 filter. I bought a set of generic plug wires at tractor supply and ordered a rebuild kit from Advance auto parts(!). I was not gettijng a spark and was pretty worried about the magneto, but after removing it, opening it up, cleaning everything and adjusting the points it was producing a good spark. The carburetor still wasn't delivering after I had gone through it - I had missed cleaning out the orifice from the jet to the bottom of the bowl! Three cylinders also had stuck valves. Luckily they were under the plug openings so I could get a punch on them and hammer them down. After cycling them quite a few times they freed up and started working, pushing lots of air out of the plug openings. I finally got it all together and all it would do was backfire. After 2 attempts at rearranging the plug wires I got it right and it fired up! It didn't take long to start hitting on all cylinders, it ran fast for a while then settled into a nice idle. The exhaust even stopped smoking after a few minutes, I had cleaned up the exciter armature with a scotchbrite pad and brake-parts cleaner and the 115v outlet showed good voltage and had no trouble running a drill I plugged into it. I tried welding and although the meter showed about 20v it would not weld. The 20v must have been from the exciter because when I took the cover off the main armature it was in pretty sad shape. Mice had nested in there and left a big mess. The little steel keepers around the brushes were so rusted the brushes were stuck. I had to remove the brush assemblies and clean them up. One of the keepers was rusted away so I made a new one out of a piece of galvanized. I finally got that all back together and cleaned up the main armature - I used fine sandpaper too this time since the scotchbrite wasn't getting it. Cranked it up again and after a little scratching it STARTED WELDING! It idles up and everything! Since then I've been cleaning things up enough to put the bodywork back together. Anyhow, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. When I find the time I'll have to see about mounting it on a trailer and making it look good!

Brad

[Chrisp]

Be cautious about plugging power tools into the older sa200's. They are only rated for 8.7 amps, and DC tools only. If an AC tool survives long enough, you will do bad things to the circuits in your welder, to the tune of about $400+. The older machines do not have a circuit protection device, unless the individual owner installs one. Angle grinders are the most common tool run on these machines around here, but alot of the bigger (7") grinders are rated at 15 amps. The 4" or 4 1/2" that I have seen and use are usually about 7 amps, and you can run them just as hard as you want. Not personal experience, just a lesson learned from a very good friend with an inexperienced helper. Chris

[ventureline]

All SA200 units can handle a 20 amp dc surge with the exciter unprotected, protection is generally held at 15 amps. Really, really early units had a 9 amp receptacle, but were still capable to handle a 15 amp auxillary load

Lincoln Tech.

[oper2nyst]

Originally Posted by Sberry27

I bought the few things I needed from the dealer.

good lord ,that is one beautiful looking finished product, what part of the living room do you keep it in ? [just kidding, but it is gorgeous]

[Charley H]

Hi Cowboy; lincoln welders has something for you to read. go to lincoln electic,click on knowledge,click on articles,drop staight down and click on full article list,go to welding projects & miscellaneous, click on select article and find Pipeliner 200 and click it on, click on go. it is a story about a guy who will not weld with anything but these old welders. he collects,buys and restores these old lincoln welders and uses them. there are links listed for parts and stuff from lincoln. this guy is in southern MO. good reading.