Your last generator Maintenance Run

[MossRoad]

I used to use starting fluid, but a few years ago, my mechanic said to use carb cleaner. He said something to the effect that its a lot easier on the engine. It seems to work just fine. I only give it a spritz. Less than one second of spray.

 

[3930dave]

I hate it when power goes on and off in short durations. You hear the master breakers clattering away
and your gen just kicks in with its less than perfect initial waveform which is what greets all your electrical/electronic devices and then shortly after
the on off cycle repeats when public power comes back on. It's like boxing blows to your electronics, which is why surge protectors are so important.
Tripplite, thank you

I owned a Radio Shack for five years and was Mr Fixit to the local community.
For years on larger tvs I gave out free three dollar surge protectors for one outlet with the tv.
Those tvs never ever had problems. Though better quality surge protectors moderate the incoming tidal wave more effectively.

Small gens unless very expensive likely do not have electrical characteristics that match what normally comes into our houses.
Just something to think about when firing up that expensive laptop in an unprotected plug while on generator power...
I worried about that in my travel trailer until I bought a portable surge protector for the RV plug. RV parks and marinas are notorious
for putting out bad power, usually when full of guests.

I think Honda started making the first consumer really well regulated generators. When they are charging four thousand for the same gross spec as others are
charging one thousand, you just know there's a lot more machinery and electronics in there. And sometimes, particularly if medically required for life saving
equipment, if you can afford it, you really should buy the best. It just has to start and has to run. Plain and simple.

Utilities usually manage the lines well, but in an extended windstorm, I'd be tempted to flip your auto-start Gen to Run for the duration, after the first event. Just Because I Could

RV parks, my practice is to test the 30+ amp receptacle with a basic DMM, before plugging in. Noticed the practice on a full-timers forum.... a few had learned the hard way that somebody that didn't know what they were doing had wired up 220 instead of 110

Rgds, D.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I used to use starting fluid, but a few years ago, my mechanic said to use carb cleaner. He said something to the effect that its a lot easier on the engine. It seems to work just fine. I only give it a spritz. Less than one second of spray.

Have to start my mower that way, unless it is warmed up. Little squirt of carb cleaner.

 

[4570Man]

Brake cleaner works too. So does gas in a coke bottle with a hole poked in the lid.

 

[frugalangler]

Just picked up an old Winco 6KW, made I think in the '80's, it's powered by a Wisconsin JTD 2 cylinder 18HP, spins at 1800, and sounds very strong. I am going through the gen-set electrics as it was made to be a stand-alone unit from what I can tell, with bonded neutral to ground and isolating the neutral is not an easy task, as the 12V system that primes the gen-set on startup is at ground, not neutral, but I added an isolation transformer on the self-excitation and a relay to temporarily bond neutral to ground on start-up for excitation initiation. Now, I have a floating neutral generator that can be docked to a residential 2-pole transfer switch where the common neutral to ground bonding occurs and adhere to code, but have the option to run standalone by inserting a bonding plug on the generator when non-docked locally grounded use is desired. In doing all this work, I then went to do a maintenance check run, and no output?? Well, the 30 year old breakers both failed, one 2-pole for the 240V side had one pole go open, and the single pole for the 120V convenience outlet on-board also failed, so am replacing both of those - finding NOS QC breakers turned out to be a challenge, but google located some. Lastly, I replaced the 3-pole 240V twist-lock with a 4-pole L14-30 so I can carry the neutral separately from ground when docked.
This thing is HEAVY, I estimate somewhere around 600# due to the heavy casting of that indestructable JTD engine, so I built a 4-castor dolly to set it on (the one in pic is borrowed one).

Bottom line to this story, I found it interesting in my research of just how many generators are sold and installed for docked use that are internally bonded such as mine, which creates a safety hazard (there's another thread here about bonding neutral in remote panels). Anyway, I'm now comfortable that I have a robust backup set that 'can' be used portable if desired. I've got some cosmetic work to do, and I'm going to see about a true 'muffler' as the exhaust is quite loud. I also kept all the remote start capability there, so this thing only requires flipping a single switch to start, all the start-up is automated (quite a feat in that era, it's simple relay switching).

 

[grsthegreat]

I hate it when power goes on and off in short durations. You hear the master breakers clattering away
and your gen just kicks in with its less than perfect initial waveform which is what greets all your electrical/electronic devices and then shortly after
the on off cycle repeats when public power comes back on. It's like boxing blows to your electronics, which is why surge protectors are so important.
Tripplite, thank you

I owned a Radio Shack for five years and was Mr Fixit to the local community.
For years on larger tvs I gave out free three dollar surge protectors for one outlet with the tv.
Those tvs never ever had problems. Though better quality surge protectors moderate the incoming tidal wave more effectively.

Small gens unless very expensive likely do not have electrical characteristics that match what normally comes into our houses.
Just something to think about when firing up that expensive laptop in an unprotected plug while on generator power...
I worried about that in my travel trailer until I bought a portable surge protector for the RV plug. RV parks and marinas are notorious
for putting out bad power, usually when full of guests.

I think Honda started making the first consumer really well regulated generators. When they are charging four thousand for the same gross spec as others are
charging one thousand, you just know there's a lot more machinery and electronics in there. And sometimes, particularly if medically required for life saving
equipment, if you can afford it, you really should buy the best. It just has to start and has to run. Plain and simple.

i have a whole house surge suppressor, and surge units on my home theater. ive also used generators on my house since i built it in 1996. actually i used a generator to build it as the property didnt have power yet. my house is full of high end appliances and guess what. the generator has never affected any of them. go figure.

 

[MossRoad]

Brake cleaner works too. So does gas in a coke bottle with a hole poked in the lid.

Gas in a coke bottle.... I'll pass. :firefighter:

 

[3930dave]

I used to use starting fluid, but a few years ago, my mechanic said to use carb cleaner. He said something to the effect that its a lot easier on the engine. It seems to work just fine. I only give it a spritz. Less than one second of spray.

Used a lot of quick start on carb'd car and truck engines back in my teens. We had some pretty brutal winters back then, -40 was common. QuickStart/ether is extremely volatile, which has an advantage at -40, but a high dose tends to give a serious SNAP load to everything esp. at saner temps. As in, can start breaking stuff, starting with rings....

At little shot of carb cleaner isn't going to hurt anything, but I draw a parallel with drugs..... If I'm sick, and need something to fix that, OK, otherwise I stay away. Analogy extends well too.... problems set in when you start using/needing LOTS of these substances

You and other guys around here know engines, so I don't see it happening with you guys, but a problem you can get into with some of these liquid sprays is that they are very high pressure streams. If somebody doesn't bother to take the air filter off, and just starts blasting away, you might start pushing dirt or holes through the air filter.....

It's a good backup strategy though..... I've helped a wise-wrench buddy of mine start engines using brake-cleaner (not all brake-cleaner works), and actually move vehicles short distances (yard to shop) on just brake-cleaner.

High-volatility solvent sprays are a nice trick to keep in reserve with IC engines..... just keep standard fire safety in mind, and volume to a minimum.

Rgds, D.

 

[MossRoad]

I noticed with my Coleman generator that lights are a little orangish, so not running 60hz, I suspect. I unplug my electronics when running this generator. I also noticed that my older LED bulbs will blink once, then go off if I try to run them with the generator. The newer, dimable LED bulbs worked fine.

And we have a sun/heat lamp for our tortoise. It will come on, but then shut down pretty quick. So I don't run that with the generator, either. It's a $49 bulb, so I won't risk it.

 

[3930dave]

Just picked up an old Winco 6KW, made I think in the '80's, it's powered by a Wisconsin JTD 2 cylinder 18HP, spins at 1800, and sounds very strong. I am going through the gen-set electrics as it was made to be a stand-alone unit from what I can tell, with bonded neutral to ground and isolating the neutral is not an easy task, as the 12V system that primes the gen-set on startup is at ground, not neutral, but I added an isolation transformer on the self-excitation and a relay to temporarily bond neutral to ground on start-up for excitation initiation. Now, I have a floating neutral generator that can be docked to a residential 2-pole transfer switch where the common neutral to ground bonding occurs and adhere to code, but have the option to run standalone by inserting a bonding plug on the generator when non-docked locally grounded use is desired. In doing all this work, I then went to do a maintenance check run, and no output?? Well, the 30 year old breakers both failed, one 2-pole for the 240V side had one pole go open, and the single pole for the 120V convenience outlet on-board also failed, so am replacing both of those - finding NOS QC breakers turned out to be a challenge, but google located some. Lastly, I replaced the 3-pole 240V twist-lock with a 4-pole L14-30 so I can carry the neutral separately from ground when docked.
This thing is HEAVY, I estimate somewhere around 600# due to the heavy casting of that indestructable JTD engine, so I built a 4-castor dolly to set it on (the one in pic is borrowed one).

Bottom line to this story, I found it interesting in my research of just how many generators are sold and installed for docked use that are internally bonded such as mine, which creates a safety hazard (there's another thread here about bonding neutral in remote panels). Anyway, I'm now comfortable that I have a robust backup set that 'can' be used portable if desired. I've got some cosmetic work to do, and I'm going to see about a true 'muffler' as the exhaust is quite loud. I also kept all the remote start capability there, so this thing only requires flipping a single switch to start, all the start-up is automated (quite a feat in that era, it's simple relay switching).
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EXCELLENT find, and thanks for the pics too.

Nice to see old-iron being brought back to life. You'll have all sorts of options avaiable, but one thing I've seen used successfully at low cost is something like a 600cc street-bike "take-off" muffler - if you want to stay vertical.

(Street racers will often buy a brand new bike then immediately yank off the stock muffler for replacement. Depending where you are geographically, there may be take-offs available cheaply online/local ).

Great recovery project, and pls post final pics later !

(P.S. - consider Stabil 360 protection for that metal tank, if you haven't seen it before.)

Rgds, D.