Bad Fuel / Down on Power - Powermate Generator Sitting for Years

hey guys welcome back so today's find this is 5000 watt Powermate generator it was listed on Facebook Marketplace for only a hundred dollars according to the listing it's only been used a couple times and then it was stored away for 14 years and unfortunately fuel was left in the tank and you can guess what happened anyway the guy selling it he had some small engine experience so he did pull the carburetor and clean it but he didn't test it yet he started dealing with the tank he drained it out and wasn't sure where to go from there because the fuel petcock it is rusted out and no longer operational and actually it spins in this bushing down here and it was leaking so that's what kind of tipped them off to the fuel problem he could smell it when it was dripping out it smelled really bad in fact it still does even though the tank has mostly been drained it's a very strong smell of paint thinner and you can see a little bit of fuel in there and some other debris that doesn't belong anyway the listing said the tank was a total loss but I don't think that's the case it does need to be cleaned up a little bit more a new fuel valve and bushing and I think we'll be good to go so the tank is actually not installed it's just sitting on top here so I'm going to get that out of the way I'm going to feed the carburetor a little bit of fuel see if that cleaned carburetor is any good and go from there I'm gonna get this old fuel line out of the way I don't want any old nastiness going into that carburetor feed it some fuel and hopefully it stops it is going down slowly but if the needle and seat are working it should stop at some point all right good it looks like it's stopped there's a line right there and it seems to be holding check the oil yeah there's oil in there maybe a little low but not enough to be a concern for testing so let's hook up the light and see if it starts throttle's not stuck foreign [Applause] I got nothing from that engine so I'm going to go on a limb here and say we have spark fuel is the issue so I'm going to pop off the air box give it a square to starting fluid and see if this thing comes to life foreign it sounded good but I didn't see that light come on so most likely the engine didn't get up to speed and of course it didn't run on the fuel that's in the carburetor so I'm going to try it again I'm just going to feed it a little bit of fuel keep it going a little longer until I see that light come on foreign [Applause] I got nothing from that light so I did double check it it's turned on light bulbs not burned out so I'm going to move the plug just to a different outlet and try it again but I think we might have more issues here than just a dirty carb foreign not too bad the power head it works and I was getting a little concerned it was harder than most to get that light to come on but some of that can be attributed to the fact that the engine wasn't up to speed that the engine speed was unstable and that it's been 14 years since this power head has made any power and this powerhead design relies on residual magnetism if you don't have any magnetism in the system then it will not power up and after 14 years I'm sure it was pretty weak on newer models most of the rotors have a permanent magnet so you cannot lose residual magnetism in this type of design but this older design on this power head you certainly can anyway the engine sounds good power head Works carburetor not so sure about so let's pop that off we'll get it up on the bench and see if it's viable to get the carburetor off you need to use a torque socket it's an E5 and it makes removing these studs really easy now if you don't have one you can double nut it but there's not a lot of threads to do that and this makes it a lot easier all right place your bets I don't think this one's going to be very good I can smell the bad fuel and even though it's been cleaned once obviously it still has issues not terrible I was expecting a lot worse obviously the bowl there's a lot of junk a lot of bad fuel a lot of debris but I don't think that's rust it should clean up the main jet is right there and there are some pickups here that also have to be clear but yeah the main jet it does look clogged which I think we knew because it doesn't run the generator oh yeah and a bunch of junk here this is the fuel Inlet area motion tube yeah it's really not that bad so this will clean up well and that means yet is jammed in there so I'm not going to force it out and clean it like that but I do see there's a lot of junk right here this is the fuel Inlet as well so the fuel it was going very slow into that carburetor and that is most likely the reason why the Inlet tube here it's kind of hard to tell if it's rust or varnish but it doesn't look so good either anyway let's clear all the passages get this soaking in the ultrasonic and we should be good to go yeah unfortunately this gasket looks to be compromised right there it got pinched when someone cleaned this in the past and it looks like it's broken right there as well so yeah that it's going to have to be replaced it's critical for this carburetor to function properly because that forms a bunch of channels and gets sandwiched between the carb body and this plastic piece and if that's not perfect this is never gonna run right so I do have some extra Nikki gaskets it's not for this carburetor at least I'm not sure so I'll see what I have but most likely I'm gonna have to order up a new one of those I'm gonna use a zip tie just to kind of poke around this corner make sure it's clear and yeah it is I can see it it's hard to see but it makes it all the way nope it's different so need to order a new one of those that's fine we'll finish cleaning this up anyway and wait for that part it's getting there I'd say another 10 15 minutes and it should be good well waiting for those carb Parts I want to deal with the next major issue here not that the tank is a major issue but it needs to be dealt with this still fuel in here it needs to be drained out and this valve replaced so I'm going to try to remove this without causing any damage then I'll have better access to drain what's left and clean it out and get a new valve in its place foreign I wouldn't say that stuff's fresh it actually smells much worse than it looks if you can imagine that anyway a tank it needs to be rinsed out so I'm going to put some fresh fuel in there just a bit swish it around drain it out do that a few times until it starts coming out like it's supposed to and then I'll just finish it up by mopping out the bottom of that tank it's getting there a lot less chunks but the color's still wrong mm-hmm yeah I think we're just about there I'm gonna rinse it a couple more times the gas and call it good [Music] it's looking pretty good at this point there are still a few bits coming out so I'll work at it a little more but there is a fuel filter that'll be installed in the tank so either way I think we'll be okay the parts finally showed up so I got a cheap clone kit that has about five of these gaskets for about ten dollars and I got a replacement valve the OEM One is no longer available but there was a clone on Amazon which should do the trick so let's see if this clone gasket is any good yep seems to line up just fine okay all right let's try it out just feed it a little bit of fuel it looks like the needle and seat are working so let's try starting it foreign not too bad started first pull and the engine sounded good so the carburetor it is doing a good job but I did notice the engine speed it was fast it was around 63 and a half Hertz and the voltage was high as well and 135 volts so this generator does not have an AVR and the voltage is tied to the engine speed so ideally I would back off the spring tension a bit on the governor to get the engine speed closer to 61 and a half Hertz so we'll do that in a bit when I get it outside for load testing but for now I think it's earned an oil change and then I'll move on to fixing that tank foreign so to install this valve you need to insert the bushing first and then use something like oil on The Middle and on the fitting here just to help it go in because it's a really tight fit and you do need a little something to help it go yeah it seemed a little bit too easy it's not exactly the snug as fit so I wouldn't say we're out of the woods yet let's flip it over we'll add some gas into the tank and see if it holds I think that did it I don't see any leaks Let's test the valve yep works fine I'm gonna throw the air box back on I think we're done in here and then I'm going to move on and just clean up all the dirt and dust off of this thing [Music] foreign generator looks brand new under all this dust there's virtually no rust on the exhaust system or the stator and those are always the first things to rust up anyway I'm going to leave the tank off it'll make that speed adjustment easier so get it outside we'll adjust the speed put it to the test and if everything checks out we'll finish it up and throw that tank back in place I'm gonna get this started and set the engine speed the last time it was running it was a little bit fast just above 63 Hertz and I prefer to set them as slow as possible usually at around 61 and a half Hertz but you have to keep in mind that with no load versus full load the engine speed sags by four or five Hertz on a healthy engine and you're really aiming for close to 60 hertz at half load and in order to get that you do need to set the engine speed high without a load so that way when you're fully loaded you're staying above 58 Hertz so let's get the engine started we'll let it warm up a bit and then I'm going to bend this tab right here I'm going to take a little tension off the spring to slow the engine speed down closer to 61.5 Hertz we'll then put a 3000 watt load on it which is just over half load and see how the engine does not quite the slam dunk ending I was hoping for here there are multiple issues going on I guess starting with the carburetor I had to have this choke on about two clicks for the engine to sound good so although the carb was running it well last time I started it something's changed and it's not running as well the engine speed I brought it down to about 62 Hertz and under load it dropped to about 59 Hertz and that is right on the edge of too much so there is some adjustment we can do on the governor this governor spring can be put in different positions and the further or the closer you move it to the shaft that goes into the engine the more sensitive or the more responsive the governor is to a load so I'm going to try bringing that in at least one hole closer maybe two and see if that makes it a little bit more responsive and then the last issue was the voltage without a load it was at 130 volts and for something like this without an AVR that is normal usually I see between 127 and 134 volts at that engine speed but at 3000 Watts that voltage dropped quite a bit to 115 volts and that is too much so most likely there is a capacitor down here in the generator head that might be bad I'm not sure if this one's brushed or brushless but I think we do need to take a look at that see if there can be any improvements made so let's start with the governor spring right now the spring it's in the seventh hole position and on newer engines I do see it on number five but let's start with number six and have to reset the speed because putting it in this position it's going to change the tension a little bit on the spring foreign well I think I can cross engine speed off the list under a full load of 5000 Watts it held at just above 58 Hertz and that's what I wanted to see so the engine speed it's not an issue but the voltage yeah definitely an issue Under full load it dropped to 108 volts so this one has a capacitor you can just see it right in there and I'm sure that capacitor needs to be replaced and hopefully will fix that voltage issue and of course the carburetor it is not happy at all so that needs to come off as well so I'm going to get this back inside let it cool down a bit and get the end off the power head and get that carburetor back up on the bench going to start with testing the capacitor to remove it I need to pull the four stator bolts and then that end cover should come right off providing access to that capacitor [Music] thank you so that's the capacitor in question I need to remove these three screws right here to gain access to that the only other component down here that is in play is this bridge rectifier and if that was bad I don't think we'd be getting any power at all so let's get the capacitor out we'll get it up on the bench and test it foreign this capacitor is not labeled for polarity but I know it is polarity sensitive so I've already marked right here in here I just want to make sure if we end up reusing this that we connected back the proper way and there is a chance this is charged so be careful just make sure okay good it's discharged this capacitor it's rated at 130 microfarad it doesn't list the tolerance but usually it's plus or minus five percent so anywhere between 124 microfarad and 100 and 36 would be considered within spec let's see where this one comes in at 121.9 which is close but definitely add a spec so the capacitor it does need to be replaced the other thing I noticed too is that the capacitor doesn't sit flat on the workbench so it is bulged slightly and should definitely be replaced the new capacitor showed up today this one I ordered on eBay and it is made by the same manufacturer but the rating it is different this one is 220 microfarad but according to all the parts sites the 130 it was superseded due to failures for the 220. so I think we'll be okay this is not a brushless generator where you have to match the capacitor so you know in this case I think it should work fine normally I would test this but my meter can only go up to 200 microfarads so I can't really test it but when putting it down on the bench it doesn't roll around like the old one so I think we'll be okay and the only other thing to note here is that the new one does clearly indicate the negative with the stripe and the old one actually had a Green Dot with a pattern on the rivet and if you look at the new one it has the same pattern on the side with the stripe and the side I marked on the old one was the positive so I think we'll go with that for the new one and we should be okay yeah I guess it kind of makes sense the green wire the one that I did not mark it is the negative and the wire I marked is blue and that's the positive foreign I popped the carburetor off again just going to take a look inside to see why this is running lean after testing well initially fuel doesn't look great but there's no water the gaskets actually looks like it's swollen can't really get it to where it belongs so this kit that I used it was a clone kit it was an aftermarket kit and I'm thinking that that may have just been the only issue because this gasket it's critical it has to fit perfectly or things aren't going to work right so um kind of leave this alone I'm not going to clean it instead I'm going to order the OEM kit put that in see if that solves the problem the OEM kit showed up in the mail today so let's get this one installed fits perfectly and that's it so I'm going to pause it here I'll bolt it onto the machine I turn you back on in a second outside so what do you think are both those issues solved yes and no the carburetor issue I feel pretty confident that that clone gasket was bad and the OEM One hopefully will get the carburetor running right as far as the voltage goes yeah I'm not so sure about that one because the capacitor that I pulled out wasn't really that bad if bad at all and this doesn't have an AVR so it is normal to get high voltage without a load in this case we're at 130 volts which is 10 volts over where you want to be and then when fully loaded you're going to have the opposite problem where it's below 120 volts and we were about 12 volts down so yeah I'm not expecting miracles from that capacitor but let's give it a try [Music] [Music] yeah not too bad I was a little pessimistic about replacing that capacitor but it did make a difference Under full load instead of running at 108 volts we were pretty close to 112 volts so now that's only eight volts below 120. so I would say the voltage issues they're sorted out as best they can be for something like this without an AVR and the carburetor did a good job as well I was able to turn the choke off right away there was no more hunting and surging so the engine's good the power head's good I think this thing's pretty much done so let's throw the tank back on and call it done all right guys and that's pretty much it I mean this generator it was not in terrible condition a lot of its issues were just due to lack of Maintenance and sitting around for a long time but it's running well now it's making power and it's doing exactly as it should so I hope this video helps someone thanks for watching

Channel: James Condon

Views: 57,702

Keywords: Bad Fuel, Bad Gas, Bad Gasoline, Bad Petrol, Capacitor, Carburetor Cleaning, Dirty Carburetor, Fixed, Fuel Valve Install, Generator, Governor Droop, Governor Spring, Hertz, How To Clean a Carburetor, How To, How-To, Leaking Tank, Leaking, Load Test, Low Voltage, Powermate, Residual Magnetism, Running Lean, Small Engine, Surging, Tank Bushing, Troubleshooting, Ultrasonic Cleaner, Volts, Will Not Start

Id: cvXQm3lwhRo

Length: 47min 59sec (2879 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2022