Hurricane/Honda generatorPuzzle -opinion
South Carolina Hurricane this weekend.
Son in law had 4 year old Honda generator he bought new- uses Stabil in the fuel – fuel 3 weeks old – mid sized generator (2 people can pick it up)-he ran in 4 hours sunday Am at his house- always starts on 2 nd or 3rd pull.
he called me – said do you want a 2 hour run to help your refrigerator? – he put it in his pickum up truck (in the rain) and brought it to my house. we set it in garage and no start on first pull or 45th pull. area around plug was dry. Top of gen. says “keep generator dry” (but I used to work for a company where they were used outside.
– removed sediment bowl – its full of clean looking fuel
– plug looked ok
– pulled plug wire off connected another wire to plug wire, , had spark
– put wire on plug, grounded plug got spark at plug gap
– tried choking
— tried not choking
engine would fire once about every 10 pulls, sometimes blowing fire out the exhaust or carb (varied)
Any idee? Anyone had a similar problem? we thought either some water got in the electrics on the truck ride – but the plug was getting spark – or the
sloshing of the fuel in the tank broke loose some trash – but seemed like it would have started, then sucked the trash into the carb.
we Took it to a repair shop today – mechanic said hey thats a nice generator -was surprised it did not run
he checked sediment trap near the carb bowl (was ok) – said least little bit of trash could clog it.
Do these generators not have a fuel filter (do they need one)?
Replies
Watered down air filter?
You didn't specify if the mechanic got the thing running or not. And if he did, what was his diagnosis?
An in-line fuel filter is cheap insurance for small engines. A lot of crap can collect in jerry cans sitting around in sheds, backyards, etc. One small piece of rust or dead leaf can block carb jets easily and prevent starting or running.
A small dose of gas-line anti-freeze (I know you don't use that down there, but try to get some anyway from a friend up in the snow zone) will prevent problems with water in your gasoline. It is basically alcohol, which mixes with water and enables it to burn. Virtually all fuel has some water content in it; large industrial engine installations invariably include fuel separators to centrifuge off the water before it gets to the engine. That's not practical for small engines, or even for automotive engines. So toss some gas-line anti freeze into your jerry can and eliminate that problem at the source.
Do make sure no water got into the cylinder through the exhaust pipe. I have a snowblower with a Tecumsa engine that cannot be left out in the weather uncovered because the cylinder fills up with water if it rains. Really stupid design, but there you are.... If this turns out to be your problem, you'll have to change the oil three or four times to get all the water out of the crankcase, install a new oil filter, and crank the engine by hand a good bit with the plug removed to blow all the remaining water out of the top end.
Last thing I can think of is just plain wet ignition wires. Sometimes this will ground out enough of the spark that what's left isn't sufficient to make the engine start or run well. In the old days, we used to slosh out the distributor cap and wires with kerosene to dry em after running through deep puddles that caused the car to stall out. Don't know if that'd be a good idea today with all the low-voltage electronics on board; probably better to use an electrical contact cleaner spray that displaces water.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
will let you know when we hear -
mechanic says priority is on gen sets but he may tell the chain saw people the same thing.
air filter was dry (foam)
I had a similar incidence with a generator not long ago (started/ran great until moved) I tried everything I knew to get it going again. Finally called the manufacturer.
The solution....drain the oil.
seems that the oil tank contains a sensor that prevents it from running if on a slope. The move sloshed the oil onto the sensor causing the eratic behavior.
Sure enough, drained thoroughly then refilled and it fired on the first pull.
Hope this helps
gk
Since you have a spark and it seems to intermittently fire/backfire, I'd also check to see if the flywheel spun on the crankshaft. Sometimes yanking on the starter rope without first taking up the slack can cause the flywheel to shift, breaking the key.
We're all awaiting the final diagnosis...
Had a Honda generator that wouldn't start once, it turned out that one valve had stuck not quite closed. Just pushing on it with a wooden hammer handle freed it up, and it ran fine.
-- J.S.
Blowing fire out exhaust or carb does sound like a stuck valve problem.
I had a Honda automobile (an '86) that wouldn't start after it rained. I'd spray the wires liberally with WD-40 and then it would start. Finally, I replaced all the sparkplug wires and it was fine after that.
Air, gas, spark and compression are the 4 things you're looking for.
Apparently, you have air and spark. If ,after all that cranking with the choke on, the plug is still dry, you might not be getting fuel into the cylinder. Try pouring some gas into the carb and giving it a few more pulls. I'm going to assume there's compression otherwise it would just be free-wheeling when you pull it through. Timing of the spark is important but unless there was some catastrophic event (such as a hurricane) that banged things around since the last time it was run, the spark timing is probably alright. If the thing starts after pouring gas into the carb and then dies, you've got a blockage in the carb or fuel line or you have water somewhere it doesn't belong
we also tried squirting fuel in the carb ( I did not mention that ) no effect-
it had compression but did pull over easy so maybe it is a stuck valve. I had not used it before so dont know what was normal - but son in law might not have notices since ita always started quick. few times it fired it was a sick put put, or a backfire
odd tho it ran so well all morning
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wonder how the low oil cut off works - seems if you were getting spark that then the cut off would NOT be the problem?????????
Da Answer
Mr Spark Plug
Wed (problem was on sunday) mechanic said all he did was replace the plug. (Plug was new last year - nor used much).
Mech said that the fact that the plug made a spark out side the engine did not matter. He indicated it was fouled in some way.
My son in law calls it his $60 spark plug.
starts on one pull now.
Been bit by a good looking but putzy spark plug myself. Changed it as a last resort, and bingo, engine fires up. This after pulling the flywheel and changing the points, and even putting a new head gasket in. Felt like an idjit. Dooh.