Long term generator (or any small engine) storage

[Music] [Music] hurricane season [Music] [Music] let's talk about one of the most neglected pieces of homeowner equipment generators now if you've seen any of my other videos you'll know that I'm a big fan of saving stuff from the scrap yard or the junk pile I like to pick stuff off the curb I like to get stuff that my neighbors throwing out and it's no different with this one I fixed this thing up about two years ago and I'm in this thing maybe seventy bucks but I've already got it going I didn't do a video on that because I did all that before I started making YouTube videos now a year ago I took this thing out and I run it for a little while and then I prepped it to put it back up that's what I'm going to show you later in this video but for right now let's sound good that work this thing's been sitting for a year I haven't touched it and I'm we're in real time live action show you how quickly I can get this thing started back using what I call the ATF trick [Music] well as you can see I took it on a few times and it fired right up after sitting a year all I just pour gas in it now let me show you how I did that the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna shut the fuel off right here if you don't have a shutoff valve on yours then you can just take a pair of bias grips and gently pinch your main fuel line don't get too rowdy with it cuz you don't tear the line but you know just make it where it can't get any more fuel out of the tank but I almost just cut it off then I'm gonna start it up and I'ma let it run out of gas [Music] then you want to let it cool off for a few minutes now I'm gonna take this line loose right here on the down side of the filter and leave to cut off valve off for the time being so let's pull this off and I want you can see this I got something to catch there the gas let's go run out there's gonna be a little bit well there we go then I'm gonna take my gas counter I'm gonna stick it right here see you feel fitter in here and open it up now that's gonna drain everything out of the tank up here right here and let it run up but can you can now for the fun part gonna find you some regular old ATF automatic transmission fluid that's what I use to store these generators now watch what I do this nipple right here comes on a bottle of Giro or a bottle Lucas and here's a fun little trick it screws right on top really fly of one of these it's magic now taking cut this thing off is high as I can so it'll go in the end of the hose have a sharper knife it work better like that then one just stick this in here turn it up and let her drink and after I fill that thing up I'll hook everything back up and I give it a few tugs nothing start now your ultimate goal with all it is is here's a carve it goes on small engine it's not this thing come off a Briggs but they're all kind of the same this is your fuel bowl and you want to get automatic transmission fluid to go down and to get in this bowl and then you want to pull on it a couple times so it can suck it all up in those little jets now you might be saying hey man why don't you just run it out of gas shouldn't be good not necessarily because there's still a little bit of gas left in there and if it drives out it's gonna leave Krusty's all in there and the next time you go to start your generator after a year or two years or three years or however long then it's not gonna start and you're gonna be scrambling trying to fix it before big storm comes you might all be saying well look how you stable feel stable this is some good stuff it really is but if you look out the back it says keep fuel fresh for up to 24 months I've seen fuel go bad that was treated with this in 8 to 9 months so if it's a short-term deal yeah go for the stable but if you don't know how long you're gonna store your generator you don't use it every year if you're in a hurricane zone like me you might use it two or three times in one year and then you may not use it again for 2 3 4 5 years the reason I use ATF is because have you ever been to a junkyard and pull the dipstick on a car that's been sitting 20 years yeah that ATF is still cleaning a lot of times it's got some good detergent in there it also keeps all the seals nice and lubricated and all it's going to do when you get ready to use it again when you put the fuel back in it is just gonna make a big poof of smoke running like crap for a minute and it's gonna smooth out everything's beautiful you don't have to do anything else now I have to tell you that this is kind of an old school trick my dad taught me this years ago and I've seen this stuff go for five six many years get gas put in it and then after a few pulls fire right back up but it's not by the book like I said this is some old school stuff so just keep that in mind but it's never letting me down and I've done it on many pieces of equipment and you don't do it just on generators you can do it on anything if you want to any small engine stuff before you store it now if you think this is a pretty good idea go ahead and smash that like button for me I appreciate it if you've got any questions about storing your generator and using this method drop a comment down below and if you like DIY stuff if you like trying to fix your own stuff if you like seeing me get stuff off the curb and fix it and use it consider subscribing I'm always coming out with new little videos with new little tricks and stuff that I've learned thanks for watching to the end thanks for hanging out come back see me [Music]

Channel: Lord of junk

Views: 344,541

Keywords: generator, generator storage, generator no start, hurricane prep, small engine storage, automatic transmission fluid

Id: UWNC1TDTpzk

Length: 7min 44sec (464 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2020