Need Help Identifying this Big Blue 400P

[Koots Cowboy]

Hello everyone, i just recently picked up this Big Blue 400P and there is a couple things throwing me off. I was told this was a CC/CV, the trailer that it is on is a 6/11/2007.

1) The serial tag is missing and i have yet to locate a second one.
2) I Was told and thought it was a CC/CV however the idle solenoid is not present even though there appears to possibly be wiring for it, there is no 3 phase breaker as well there is not a Polarity switch.
3) There isn't voltage or amperage meters.

Any help would be appreciated, i would like to get an idle solenoid and get it working as it looks like there is wiring there for it (see picture of engine) and there is the idle option on the key switch.
Also would like to get a polarity switch put in.

[Broccoli1]

Can you take a close up photo of the data plate/label that is in front of the fender?

[villageblacksmith]

Well, I'll tell you what I can.
I have a 2010 Miller Big 40. It has the Cat diesel. The controls look much like yours. Yes, your's is the CC/CV model. At least judging from the control panel. To mig with it, you need to turn the selector handle on the left all the way to the right. To the last position where it says "MAX". Then the knob on the right becomes the voltage knob. You can read approximate volts using the blue circle of numbers. Regarding the idle control, I would see if it runs without it first of all. I actually seldom use mine. I generally just keep it at high idle, or the run position, until I am ready to shut it off. Then I usually switch it to low idle, let it idle down for a few minutes, and shut it off. Good luck!

[Broccoli1]

https://www.millerwelds.com/files/ow...O4421K_MIL.pdf


Not knowing SN can not locate exact manual but I think this one is close enough.

[villageblacksmith]

And, just being nosey, what are your plans for the polarity switch? What kind of benefit is there to having one? I would really like to know. Whenever I need to change the polarity on mine I just swap the leads at the machine. I have a Tweco quick disconnect on each terminal. The whole process is tool-free, and takes very little time or thought.

[villageblacksmith]

I left out one thing - to finish setting the controls to mig, you will also need to turn that little knob in the center of the process selector panel to the mig position. How many hours does the machine have on it?

[Popeye an old miner]

And, just being nosey, what are your plans for the polarity switch? What kind of benefit is there to having one? I would really like to know. Whenever I need to change the polarity on mine I just swap the leads at the machine. I have a Tweco quick disconnect on each terminal. The whole process is tool-free, and takes very little time or thought.

Not only that but having those voltage and amperage meters are useless unless you have a buddy there to watch them for you while your welding. As far as the serial number goes you can call up Miller and they can tell you what the serial number is if you give them the all the infon you can and give them the serial number of the motor, assuming its the original motor of course.

[Welder Dave]

If the serial number isn't on the front it may be on the black sticker on the side above the tail light. That's where they have put it on some Mig machines and wire feeders. It should be in the same area they list the duty cycle, amps, etc.

[Koots Cowboy]

Thank you all for the quick reply,
See picture below for the black sticker and the trailer plate.
The idle doesn't drop at all, i kinda like it for the farm use. you can see extra wiring on the left side of the engine picture but there is not an actuator to adjust the high and low idle.
Polarity switch it just something i got use to using and this one could have the AC setting for TIG. I don't really need and I've never used the voltage or amperage gauges, just seen it didn't have any.

I just took it over 6,000 hours and it seems to weld strong across all settings. After about 20 hours it appears that i have a valve seal leaking a bit of oil into the exhaust. If you run for about 1 hour you end up with a half dollar sized puddle in top of the machine. I don't believe it's wetstacking as it's a very oil like consistancy.

[Broccoli1]

It has already been established that your machine is CV.

But on the bottom right of the label also has 400 40 CV as the model

[Broccoli1]

as Popeye mentioned send Miller the engine SN

From Miller,
"Ed
Those where built from 2002 to 2015.
If you can get an engine serial number I can get you a miller serial number

Dan Woods"

[Welder Dave]

That's odd there's not a serial number listed on the machine.

[Popeye an old miner]

That's odd there's not a serial number listed on the machine.

Im not certain his would have had it but on my 502D the serial nuber is on a sticker between the recepticals for the plugs, the sticker also tells what voltages and phases and all that are there, that sicker isnt there on his and Im almost sure my old Big 40 had the serial number on the same sticker just about the same place,but that was 20 years ago and old minds geta bit feeble over time. But yeah that fella can get you the serial number using the motor serial number.

[MISSING LINK]

I can't be much help as far as where the serial number is located. Sorry about that. What I can tell you as we have those same basic machines but they're in a five and six hundred amp range. Ours have anything from 4 cylinder air-cooled deutz (mine) to a turbo perkins. My 1997 600D with the 4 AC Deutz is fixed throttle from start up. Some of the Perkins has a low idle, some don't. I made a low idle lever for mine as it is 98 decibels wide open.
Yours will weld nice, solid wire for bore welding, stick and fluxed wires, maybe not as nice for 6010 as a Lincoln, but for everything else Miller has Lincoln beat. One word of caution. Like others have said CV mode is coarse tap turned all the way clockwise. But so is carbon arc gouge.
Watch your duty cycle. Run a smaller carbon at a higher fine dial setting than what the carbon recommends. If you run too big of carbon or too low of amps for carbon size you hit duty cycle quick and burn out the cc/cv switching. You will use more carbons, but is cheaper than a machine.
Miller knows of the issue, but there is no fix, other than change the BO parts. We had one machine the guy tried setting the coarse tap to his 100% duty cycle max amps tap (4 or 5 ?) and thought it was fine. I sat and watched the gauge, he was 150amps over duty cycle as the older power heads will not stop building amps like the dial says. They climb a bit. Burnt the switching. Then they get stuck in either cv or cc. I prefer my older machine as they have the "old hard switching" which is durable. Same parts since 1997, and when I arc, I regularly run it maxed and it stops building amps at 850.
The new miller big blues have this issue fixed. I was able to test out a 600 with the fully controlled wireless remote before the public could get it. That is an awesome machine! The remote is what sold me on it. Everything but polarity from your pocket. Nice when you are Arcing and wire welding 60ft up in a basket. Sorry for being long winded. But you have a nice machine, just watch a few things.....

[MISSING LINK]

[QUOTE=Koots Cowboy;8803202]Thank you all for the quick reply,
See picture below for the black sticker and the trailer plate.
The idle doesn't drop at all, i kinda like it for the farm use. you can see extra wiring on the left side of the engine picture but there is not an actuator to adjust the high and low idle.
Polarity switch it just something i got use to using and this one could have the AC setting for TIG. I don't really need and I've never used the voltage or amperage gauges, just seen it didn't have any.

I just took it over 6,000 hours and it seems to weld strong across all settings. After about 20 hours it appears that i have a valve seal leaking a bit of oil into the exhaust. If you run for about 1 hour you end up with a half dollar sized puddle in top of the machine. I don't believe it's wetstacking.
QUOTE=Koots Cowboy;8803202]

Just saw this part. Your machine can tig, but DC only. No AC unless you get a seperate machine and plug into the 220 outlet.

And it could have a internal oil leak, ours do that from time to time. Mine will wet stack if I don't push it from time to time. It was for a time filling the crankcase with fuel. A few hard arc air sessions and that quit and so did the wetstacking.

[Welder Dave]

Some prefer a CV machine for heavy gouging because the machine will provide as much current as the gouging rod needs. Seems like something is askew if amps ramp up in CC mode. I worked in a shop that had 2 SAE 400's burned out from gouging. Then they used an old 600 amp Hobart CV generator. The shop specialized in chromium carbide overlaid pipe so gouging was pretty regular. They also had an Esab PCM 150 plasma cutter that was like a hot knife through butter. It used air and nitrogen for the plasma gas. For the automatic overlay equipment they had several Miller Dimension 1000's running 7/64's open arc wire. The straight pipe overlay machine ran 4 at a time. They had a pretty well designed fume extractor as well. The flash from the arc was pretty bad, on par with a sub-arc flash. On the elbow machine, the operator basically just watched the meters on the machine to make sure it stayed in the parameters. Occasionally would have to adjust the voltage because the wire stick varied or something. The operator read a book at the same time as it was very boring looking at meters for hours on end.

[welding1]

Nice machine, I had a similar bought in 2004, BB400D (Duetz) mine had 3 phase but never used it. 25 gallon tank, sweet! Its great all around machine I did some carbon arc gouging with 3/8". all day long in florida. You might even run 1/2". At 7800 hours had problems staying at low idle, sold it and now run PP400 Cat. Have fun!

[Popeye an old miner]

Thinkin about the idle...my 502D has a 3 cylinder duetz motor, this machine doesnt have an option for an idle, maybe his machine dont have an option either, or maybe it does if has wires there I dont know

[thany]

This was a wonderful welder, running smoothly. Confirm that is CC/CV welder ( 2) I Was told and thought it was a CC/CV)). Just get hooked up and dial knob right on planning processes ( 2) Polarity switch). Last but not least, choose range CC (left big knob) as you want and divide by 10 on fine tune (right big knob) same on CV processes respectively the shown numbers ( 3) There is not voltage or amperage meters)). You do not really need meters, just reading your puddle.