Hey gang,
I’ve got a sweet little Honda 3500W generator that I’ve had for about 4 years. Still fires up on the first pull, but now I’m not getting power at the outlet.
I always try to work on my own compressors and generators, as long as it’s pretty much routine maintenance or fairly simple repairs, otherwise I send ’em out. Anyone have any idea where to start? Is there a couple of things I can check out to determine whether or not to take it to the repair shop? I’ve already swapped out the outlet itself, and that wasn’t it. Anyone with some experience these things wanna lend a word or two?
Thanks, Brian
Replies
Is there a reset or breaker on the unit?
Let me give this a stab.
My impression on Honda generators is they come with voltage regulators and some sort of reset.
Some voltage regulators, such as the ones found in cars, uses carbon pads as contact brushes.
These pads ride on the rotating part and conducts current.
They wear out and output becomes intermittent and then stops eventually. I have no idea how the Honda's work.
Anyhoo, you may be able to borrow a multi-meter and start poking around and checking for output, maybe starting with the voltage regulator as one of the suspects.
Thanks for the help guys. It doesn't have it's own breaker or reset. Sounds like the voltage regulator could be the problem, but I don't recall it losing power intermittently. If fact it was running fine up until a month ago when I put it away. I pulled it out Saturday and fired it up, just to keep things moving (starting to get cold around here). I plugged a wormdrive directly into the generator and hit the trigger. The generator surged to fire up the saw, then the power just quit. Thought maybe I just fried the outlet, but even after swapping that out with a brand new one...nothing.
Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and take it to the shop.
just a thought, did you try a different tool? maybe the saw just died.