Your last generator Maintenance Run

[bullbreaker]

Had not cranked it in a while, got out the JD -Subaru 404cc 14hp genny. Fresh fuel -full choke ' hit E start ' fired rite up . Have had it for years , never a lick of trouble. Wish Subaru still made gennys . Tough son of a gun . Reminds me of the old 22R Toyota engine Of course anything near perfect they conveniently to them they quit fabricating .

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[grsthegreat]

Had a power outage last night…only lasted about an hour. Ran great.

 

[nikdfish]

I remember those "recoil"? starters. I can hear the clicking noise as you wound it up. I can't remember the trigger for releasing it.

If memory serves, it released when you clicked the winding crank back down into the storage position.

 

[rScotty]

Generac 15KW on propane. We rarely go a month without a power outage, so it gets a lot of exercise.
Back in 2015 my thought was it was cheap enough from Home Depot to be OK for as long as it lasted. But it has surprised me. Darn good generator. It looks and runs fine. Even the old oil looks brand new.
I do manual start/stop so it has a warm up & cool down cycle.
rScotty

 

[Sawyer Rob]

If memory serves, it released when you clicked the winding crank back down into the storage position.

The ones I had, had a little lever you moved to release the spring to start the engine turning over.

SR

 

[Popgadget]

Generac 15KW on propane. We rarely go a month without a power outage, so it gets a lot of exercise.
Back in 2015 my thought was it was cheap enough from Home Depot to be OK for as long as it lasted. But it has surprised me. Darn good generator. It looks and runs fine. Even the old oil looks brand new.

When I had to replace the whole house generator that I assembled 30 years ago from parts that I had from being in the generator business back then, I called a friend who was a competitor back then to ask for advice. He only does industrial and commercial work, as I mostly did back then.
His suggestion was Generac, which surprised me. I mentioned that back in the day, Generac was regarded as crap, except for the large liquid cooled 1800 RPM units. He replied that they still are, but now all of their competitors in the 3600 RPM residential market are building crap, but Generac has been doing it for so long they are pretty good at it. BTW- he doesn’t sell Generac or do any residential work, so while a bit back handed, it was a valid recommendation. I bought a 22kw and it’s doing quite well. It was interesting integrating it to my Onan OT transfer switch, but it works well.

 

[grsthegreat]

i hear lots of people calling generac crap, but after installing and servicing them for years, i can honestly say they build a nice unit. i have very, very few issues with them. most issues arise from stupid owners not servicing them. i mean come on, not even doing an oil change for 7 years and then bitching that the unit is crap cause it didnt run.

there designed for occasional extended run during power outages, and not for continual runs for long periods of time.

 

[Popgadget]

I really think that was the point he was making. When I looked carefully at mine, I was impressed with how simple and uncluttered it was. To me that’s a sign of good engineering. Things like no mechanical governor or charging coils reduce parts count and increase reliability.

 

[not2old]

If memory serves, it released when you clicked the winding crank back down into the storage position.

The one we used had a small knob on the side, about 1" in diameter and about 1.5" long that you twisted to release the spring that spun the motor. Those old mowers are what caused me to become a pretty fair amateur mechanic. Young people today wouldn't believe how much skill was needed to keep them going.

 

[3930dave]

Hmmm.... time flies.... busy month or so.......

Tech not behaving...... seems the email notification I had set for this thread "fell off".... so am just now catching up on recent interesting posts....

Drew - did you get your battery-start issue sorted out ? I wouldn't want to be w/o a nicely designed pull-start, but electric is convenient....

The comments about Generac had me smiling..... after years in the Tech trenches, I can relate to the performance/reliability/cost perpetual battles.... esp. chuckled re. the Least Worst comment.....

Propane.... it makes sense to me that oil stays clean, but I often think of a counterpart from my Tech Daze when propane comes up...... he'd converted his pickup to propane, and lived in Dallas. Said that the motor oil never noticeably changed colour, but could tell by his (aftermarket) Oil Temp gauge - he paid attention enough (total opposite of grs's customers.....) that he'd notice the Oil Temperature starting to creep up (vs. Ambient/Load/Driving style) as the oil was mechanically starting to deteriorate......

Interesting recollections of the Spring Start engines.... that's one older type I'd never seen myself. Makes a lot of sense, and done well, could be reliable for a very long time........ memories of yesteryear.......

Rgds, D.