Honda EB3500x Generator engine starting issue

[rlrobinhood]

Hi all,

I recently pulled this old generator out of my dad's shed. It hasn't been used for many, many years but ran once. Anyways, I'm having a real hard time getting it to start. I replaced the carburetor, replaced the fuel line, replaced the shutoff valve, sparkplug, and air filter. I have confirmed there is fuel to the carburetor and confirmed there is spark.

I'm convinced it is a linkage/carburetor issue but just don't understand this carb. It has two butterfly valves in it. If I manually hold the linkage where the innermost (nearest the engine) butterfly valve open, I can get it to run for about 1-2 seconds then it cuts out. I suspect the outermost butterfly valve is staying closed and choking it out. But, I can't figure out how to determine if this is really happening. In the attached pic is a yellow arrow pointing to a vacuum pot that I think open the outermost butterfly valve. Is this what this does? The vacuum line goes to the green "thing" with the red arrow. What is this green "thing"? and then the vacuum line continues to the carburetor.

Can you help me out with these questions? Does anyone have one of these generators or carb/choke setups that could answer some questions for me so that I know the linkages are all correct? I believe they are.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[5030]

Did you bother to flush out the gas tank????

 

[rlrobinhood]

Did you bother to flush out the gas tank????

Good question. I did. I cleaned it and put high octane fuel back in.

 

[JPRambo]

I sometimes begin with a splash of gasoline on the air filter element to see if it could run. Then a tiny wire pushed into venturi(?) from fuel bowl to check if it is clogged with varnish from old gasoline.

I reread your first post. You get it to run for a second or two after changing carb.

 

[5030]

Sounds to me like the carb needs to be removed and given a soak in Berryman's B12 Chem tool. You need to remove all the internal parts and soak them as well. Just record the settings on the needle valves so when you put it back together you can set it back to what it was at and put an inline filter between the tank and the carb too.

 

[Richard001]

Sounds to me like the carb needs to be removed and given a soak in Berryman's B12 Chem tool. You need to remove all the internal parts and soak them as well. Just record the settings on the needle valves so when you put it back together you can set it back to what it was at and put an inline filter between the tank and the carb too.

In the OP's first post, he said this:

I replaced the carburetor, replaced the fuel line, replaced the shutoff valve, sparkplug, and air filter.

So I don't think that cleaning the carb is the answer.

 

[Richard001]

rlrobinhood​

The new carb you purchased, is it an exact replacement carb from Honda ?

Richard

 

[JPRambo]

I use a web site like ereplacement parts dot com they have specific models and exploded views with part descriptions.

 

[Richard001]

A few questions.
- Do you have the throttle control connected and does it work ?
Throttle control

And I see that there is a fuel shut-off solenoid. Is this connected and does it work ?

Shut-off solenoid is #12.

 

[thepumpguysc]

More than likely it has a “low oil” shut down in the system.??
MAKE SURE the oil level is good..
That would account for it starting for a second and shutting off..
Good luck