Generator question.

tubabucknut

So the power is out here at the house. I am running the generator to rum my daughters equipment. Hover I can not take the choke off. Every time I do it dies. What is up? Just running her room now. Generator is 5.5k.

Teach

You probably have a clogged fuel passageway in the carburetor. Is there a high speed mixture adjustment on the carb? If so it will be a fairly large screw with a spring surrounding it, most likely at the bottom of the float chamber at the bottom of the carb. If it has that, try turning the screw half a turn or so CCW to richen the high speed mixture. (more gas). Has the generator been sitting unused with gas in it for a while?

Send me a phone number by PM and I'll be glad to call and see if I can talk you through some basic diagnosis.
Jerry

tubabucknut

Big thanks to you Teach. I did not get it running great but got more power. Power is on now. Now I will try running the cleaner through it. Beyond that I guess I will pull the carb off and clean the whole thing. Thanks again teach.

snake284

tubabucknut wrote: »

Big thanks to you Teach. I did not get it running great but got more power. Power is on now. Now I will try running the cleaner through it. Beyond that I guess I will pull the carb off and clean the whole thing. Thanks again teach.

Crappy gas is making mechanics rich. I've got a tiller out back with the same problem right now. I just haven't gotten enthused enough to work on it yet.

NN

Yeah, ya gotta keep the gas fresh enough and should run the generator at least once a month for an hour.

But, even with that it can still happen.

NN

I had issues like that, fixed, then the fuel pump went bad

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got that fixed and the on/off switch broke and shed parts.

All this cost as much as the original cost of the generator probably 15 years ago.

jaywapti

It's the gas, I buy non ethanol gas for all my small engines, including my outboards and gen/weldor, I mix in the correct amount of Sta-Bil, if possible I install a small replaceable filter in the gas line and after use try to run the carbs dry. Since doing this I haven't had any problems. I did take most of the carbs apart, soak them in carb cleaner and blow out all the passages.

JAY

zorba

jaywapti wrote: »

It's the gas, I buy non ethanol gas for all my small engines, including my outboards. I mix in the correct amount of Sta-Bil, if possible I install a small replaceable filter in the gas line and after use try to run the carbs dry. Since doing this I haven't had any problems. I did take most of the carbs apart, soak them in carb cleaner and blow out all the passages.

JAY

:agree::that:

NN

I'm using that gas now

roadking

I tinker with small engines on the side...folks get fed up with their machines and ask me to just take them away. I tell them that I'll probably just clean out the carb and put it on craigs list...they are fine with that. 10 minutes of effort, a parts washer, and boom...gun fund money...plus enough equipment for kiddos to start a lawn care business this spring...for no up front money.

As for an easy solution...run the fuel dry when you are done with it...shut off the fuel line, drain it, put in a shut off valve...whatever, and run the machine until it carps out...needle valve and gaskets will thank you, and will be just fine.

Matt

Make_My_Day

I have a 5.5 K genny that gets screwed up in the same way every couple of years. It's the ethanol fuel. If you get the problem worked out, start shutting off the fuel supply first and let the engine die before cutting the run switch off. That way the crappy gas can't screw up the carburetor while it's sitting idle.

zorba

I have a 5.5 as well - it actually came with a fuel petcock.

Varmintmist

but its harder to siphon a grill

tubabucknut

Thanks for the advice guys. Teach walked me through some stuff earlier, and was a big help. It is bad gas. I thought I had run it down and I had not. I will be cleaning the carb this weekend, and I will heed the storage advice in the future. There is nothing like going to your emergency option, and it does't work.

CPJ I have considered it. I keep a lot of propane for various reasons.

Big Chief

Too bad diesel gens cost so much more. I used and pulled operator level maintenance on 5K/10K/15K/30K/45K we pulled or carried around with us and even some 100K and bigger were used when switching from commercial to tactical power on missile sites.

In later years the ones we used were so much quieter it was hard to believe.

A bent throttle pull-out knob/shaft was a real bear from impatient operators...............we used a "W" as a reference for the control panel teaching AIT students how to power up/run/power down some of them...oil pressure gauge then had to be in the operating band and so on and so forth. Output Volts .............then the last thing you did was apply the juice........to put out power and that was the first thing to cut off in the powering down sequence.

Man, I hope your generator keeps running because you have a medical necessity when the power goes down.

BTW: The W was a memory aide/reference that correlated to the knobs/gauges/dials/controls and a easy way for folks not to get lost in the sequence.

sarg1c

Remember to use a tachometer as the speed of the engine determine the cycles. Changing the RPM can affect the cycles which has can be harmful to some electronic equipment.as someone just said, there should be a shutoff valve at the tank outlet.

Jermanator

We run small engines constantly for work, be it a generator, air compressor, pump, lawn mower, or whatever. Switching to premium gas (that has less or no ethanol) did wonders for them.

tubabucknut

Thanks again all. I cleaned the carb out and it running great. Teach thanks again. I got some of the seafoam, and will be using that from now on.