kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,164
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Warning this is long and not even that interesting or important!
This is not really a post that should be in "Heavy Equipment Forum" even in the Genset section as it just a little Generac 10000EXL. But as I'm retired and I'm usually posting over in the off-highway section with information about old Euclids or Cat front end loaders figured I post something that is giving me some problems just for fun.
Not sure why as we had about the nicest day in months no bad wind or ice storms the power went out around 3:00pm. That does not happen here too often but when I called the electric company they said 2 1/2 hours or more.
Well I decided to see if the generator that came with my second wife about 19 years ago, not a bad two for one huh?, well had to see if it would work. I had had it running a bit last summer and even put in a good used battery along with fresh oil and filter. Well of course battery was not up to cranking it over at 30º so jumper-ed it off the Rav4. Cranked but not fire. Well for lack of anything else to try I looked in the gas tank, looked great other than being dry as a bone!
Dumped in two gallons of fuel and surprise it started just fine! Amazing what a little fuel will do for an engine!
Plugged my cable in after throwing the disconnect switch by the meter, no sense in electrocuting any of the guys trying to fix the power grid. Seemed to be working fine lights and everything came on like it should. Ran fine for close to an hour then lost power but genset was still running. Went out and noticed the breaker on genset had tripped. Not too surprised as the only cord I had to hook it up only fit the 30 outlet on the genset and ours is an all electric house and I had just washed my hands using hot water and probably also triggered the well pump to come on! Turned off a bit of the electric heat in the house and fired it right up and we were back in business.
Then when I checked with power company a bit after 5:00pm they now said 8:00pm! No problem I have my own power, or so I thought! A few minutes latter lost power again but this time genset was not running! First thought is it was out of fuel and I dumped a couple more gallons in but also notice that there was still fuel in the tank. So now I wonder could this thing have a low oil level switch like some Honda Gensets I have been around. Just to be safe checked oil level and it was right at the full line on the stick.
Well I hit the start button and it fired right up. I'm good to go again! Not so soon a couple minutes later same thing it shuts off like someone hit the keyswitch. Gave it a quick look over again and found nothing and again it fired right up. Now I start poking at wires and such to see if anything killed it but no luck. Again it would run for a couple minutes and shut off.
Decided I would let it go for now and dig out the manuals and see what safety devices it has that might be causing this problem. Push it in garage and turn main switch back on before going into the house to read manual. Well guess what now power is back on!
Looking in schematics and the only thing this one has for safety shut down is low oil pressure switch, not low oil level. Did a quick Google check and actually found a result of someone with the exact model genset who had the same problem and the guy who answered his question mentioned that the pressure switch part number had been changed. I'm wondering if it was because of just this problem.
So now the plan is to try running it some more and see if it has good oil pressure and then try again with the pressure switch installed if it goes to ground or open when engine quits!
This is not really a post that should be in "Heavy Equipment Forum" even in the Genset section as it just a little Generac 10000EXL. But as I'm retired and I'm usually posting over in the off-highway section with information about old Euclids or Cat front end loaders figured I post something that is giving me some problems just for fun.
Not sure why as we had about the nicest day in months no bad wind or ice storms the power went out around 3:00pm. That does not happen here too often but when I called the electric company they said 2 1/2 hours or more.
Well I decided to see if the generator that came with my second wife about 19 years ago, not a bad two for one huh?, well had to see if it would work. I had had it running a bit last summer and even put in a good used battery along with fresh oil and filter. Well of course battery was not up to cranking it over at 30º so jumper-ed it off the Rav4. Cranked but not fire. Well for lack of anything else to try I looked in the gas tank, looked great other than being dry as a bone!
Dumped in two gallons of fuel and surprise it started just fine! Amazing what a little fuel will do for an engine!
Plugged my cable in after throwing the disconnect switch by the meter, no sense in electrocuting any of the guys trying to fix the power grid. Seemed to be working fine lights and everything came on like it should. Ran fine for close to an hour then lost power but genset was still running. Went out and noticed the breaker on genset had tripped. Not too surprised as the only cord I had to hook it up only fit the 30 outlet on the genset and ours is an all electric house and I had just washed my hands using hot water and probably also triggered the well pump to come on! Turned off a bit of the electric heat in the house and fired it right up and we were back in business.
Then when I checked with power company a bit after 5:00pm they now said 8:00pm! No problem I have my own power, or so I thought! A few minutes latter lost power again but this time genset was not running! First thought is it was out of fuel and I dumped a couple more gallons in but also notice that there was still fuel in the tank. So now I wonder could this thing have a low oil level switch like some Honda Gensets I have been around. Just to be safe checked oil level and it was right at the full line on the stick.
Well I hit the start button and it fired right up. I'm good to go again! Not so soon a couple minutes later same thing it shuts off like someone hit the keyswitch. Gave it a quick look over again and found nothing and again it fired right up. Now I start poking at wires and such to see if anything killed it but no luck. Again it would run for a couple minutes and shut off.
Decided I would let it go for now and dig out the manuals and see what safety devices it has that might be causing this problem. Push it in garage and turn main switch back on before going into the house to read manual. Well guess what now power is back on!
Looking in schematics and the only thing this one has for safety shut down is low oil pressure switch, not low oil level. Did a quick Google check and actually found a result of someone with the exact model genset who had the same problem and the guy who answered his question mentioned that the pressure switch part number had been changed. I'm wondering if it was because of just this problem.
So now the plan is to try running it some more and see if it has good oil pressure and then try again with the pressure switch installed if it goes to ground or open when engine quits!