How To: Repair a Generator That Won't Start or Stalls

hi I'm Eric and this is Paul and tonight we're going to fix Paul's broken generator again no not again I'm sorry maybe the first time for those but not have the first time here so yeah yesterday tried to do some maintenance start on it make sure that it actually start and run if you were to need it since we're starting to get some bad weather and it would start run for a few seconds and shut off and come to find out the problem was that the oil was overfilled and it was overfilled with fuel so most likely a carburetor problem where fuel is dumping from the carburetor into the engine down to the crankcase so tonight we're going to pull the carburetor apart take a look at it and see if we can't fix that so that one the weather is bad and the power does go out actually start and run what we need it so yeah should be exciting alright so the first thing that we're going to do here is take the crankcase breather off which doubles as a boil drain so we can drain some oil drain all the oil out actually what are you doing [Music] yeah that's a pretty thin oil there probably because it's mixed with fuel all right so we got all the oil drains and I'm just going to reconnect that breather tube / drain hose tighten the clamp back up on that alright so the next thing we're going to do is take off the cover for the air intake behind here a buncha we'll get to the carburetor but by taking this off this is going to be our best access all right so now we do need to pull off these six nuts and behind these covers kind of multi-layered so you got pull off the exterior cover then I'm gonna pull off these six nuts put them behind that we can get to the two bolts on the carburetor the the rest they cover on so it'll be free and clear there all right now that I have the intermediate cover off we can take off these nuts on the carburetor pull the inner cover off then we'll be at the carburetor all right so now we're going to remove the carburetor so you put on the bench and actually work on it see what our problem is so turn this [Applause] this is our fuel line which actually the fuel is on right now I'm gonna shut that off before I pull this out so grab my drain pan because we're probably gonna lose a little bit and that's okay nitrous is also a good time to a test our shutoff valve right now it's off and there's no fuel draining so that's good let's turn it on and we've got very nice fuel flow so that's good quick little to us that we ought to do just while we're in here a little residual fuel still draining out that's okay tuck this up out of the way no cooking pieces to the carburetor since a give us apart without damaging any gaskets and of course since I said that the gasket came apart let's look X it's not my engines gently because we still have some things attached to it I don't want to bend or break even though it's not mine all right now we're loose here I got some kind of a logical sensor on the bottom just gonna have to grab the Philips screwdriver don't grab me a Philips I'm not sure what the sensor is but it looks like our bolt must have done full because fuel is turning out of here my assistant fish data alright something off carburetor off it's knowing to take this to the bench take it apart and clean it out and put it back together alright so now we got the carburetor out and on the bench so I'm going to pull the ball off of it and see what we've got inside it's too small 5/16 a 9/16 that's right all right so this is a banjo fitting you can see that there's a hole on the top that's where fuel comes into the carburetor and there's holes the top is where fuel comes into the bowl the jeez no the I was the source the top is where fuel goes to the jet and these sides as where fuel goes from the bowl into the banjo fitting and this was kind of as a regulator for how much fuel can go over the engine so make sure you clean that up good make sure there's no gunk in there well this is a part so then with the bowl off let's see that gasket it's just a rubber seal and that looks like it's okay so in here in the center is the jet and this is the float when uh so it's normally sitting like this when the bowl is full of fuel it pushes the float up the flow just has air Annette and it's sealed so it pushes the float up when the float is pushed up so now it's upside down there's a needle hiding straight down and here here's the fuel Inlet so that needle seals off the fuel Inlet when this float is pushed upward so I want to take this rule pin out so I can take the float off and there's our needle and the tip of it looks pretty black and that made it's pretty uniform so that's probably actually just a coating hangs here there's a little bit of corrosion on the side of that and see it's a brass inside of that board it really it doesn't look too bad so while we're here put it back together make sure it's sealed properly clean the jet out I think we're gonna run just fine after that all right so since we've come this far while this is a part I'm going to pull the jet out so you can clean that reporting back together and the the needle for the flow maybe had a little bit of corrosion on the seat the needle actually has a rubber tip on it so that doesn't have corrosion between the seat up I'm gonna pull the gut out the bottom now alright so camera a little bit closer here so this is the jet I just pulled out of the carburetor and here's the top this this edge works a little bit different color that's what's exposed where the air is blowing by and this just has a bunch of little holes in the sides of it but they all look pretty clean that a passageway through it and that actually looks uh nice and clean too so not a lot of corrosion in there I think it's okay to just kind of give a little bit of a touch with Emery cloth and put it right back in so that's good alright so this piece here is the retainer that holds the jet into the carburetor put the jet back in there but this is the plug retainer that holds it in and it looks like it may have it's kind of hard to see through it here so you're gonna find some reflective behind it but it looks like it may actually be a little fogged up a little restricted there so I'm gonna run some wire through that clean it out and make sure it's not gonna be a problem either we put this back together let's use some stranded wire here ream that out I've got a couple strands there to wrap together here's three strands I think you'll be able to fit three through here oh yeah that's so let's work it back and forth on the edges little strands rubbing against the the side of this brass fitting we're off any kind of corrosion that's on the surface all right open right up all right so I reamed now plug out you can see quite easily that now it's actually uh good to see through a little bit better so now I move around you can see you know different colors in behind it so I think that could have likely been our problem here doesn't explain why we had so much fuel in the crankcase that could have still been a needle that wasn't seating properly maybe it's just been too long since we've done maintenance on this but I think that this is actually the problem for wide and she was only running a couple seconds installing I don't know if the oil was still overfilled that it would keep it from running so let's get this back together and we'll get it running tonight you are live so now we're gonna have some oil back and it's not very expensive oil because we're gonna run it for a few hours and take it right back out yeah then put some uh some 30-weight full synthetic in it can you see where that I tried that at a court but you know you barely moved your just below the oh the line where we started and then you put like not even a quarter of the court in there it did say in the owners manual there's some toll if you need it that you can actually see it in there well you can see the oil when it's up the right level yeah so it looks like it needs a little bit more this is the cantankerous there it's about almost halfway up all right well that's good to fall so yes if it's half-wit the cross-hatching I'd say we could add a dab but it's okay where it is and we can forget our run it and dump it anyhow all right so we pulled the carburetor apart turns out I don't believe it was actually a needle that was corroded they don't seem to be sealing fine not sure we had all that fuel in the crankcase but maybe this will be passed the needle that wasn't problem tonight but we did find that the jet was plugged or actually the the fitting that holds the jet in place was almost completely plugged up so clean that out I think that now whilst you turn the fuel back on and give this a crank I think it's gonna fire up and run just fine so let's give it a try the fuel is on all right every time was a better day all right I think we got her boss I'll turn now all right well it's good we're good cool well there you have it it's just a plugged up carburetor and I thought I wasn't running so another one fixed don't forget to turn the gas off

Channel: Painted Springs Garage

Views: 203,125

Keywords: Generator, Won't Start, No Start, Start, Stall, Stalls, Stalling, Run, Won't run, choke, Don't run, snow blower, generac, champion, honda, tecumseh, borg warner, lawn mower, stay running, running, carb, carburetor, engine, small engine, gas, gasoline, spark, oil, fuel, crank, cranking, power, electric, electricity, Fix, Fix it, fixed, fixing, repair, repaired, shop, mechanic

Id: wQwNMIpC-Os

Length: 16min 0sec (960 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 19 2018