Figures Little Genset would act up today!

[kshansen]

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!

 

[Birken Vogt]

I don't usually work on portables but if you get stuck, add to this thread. I am sure you have the skills to figure it out. If you are looking at a manual give us the manual part number (0Kxxxx) and page number so I can find what you are looking at.

 

[hosspuller]

Just another experience. Had a Generac 4000xl genset that ran until it wouldn't. The problem was a loose mounting of the coil. It let the gap get too large to fire the plug. Gapped the coil against the flywheel with a shim and secured it …. fixed.

 

[MarshallPowerGen]

Old red frame with a twin Briggs engine?

Ohm the oil pressure switch, but usually you can unplug them on the portables to bypass and keep it running (if there's oil in it, it'll be fine).

Down the line, pull the bowl off of the carb and look for yellow ethanol dust if the old fuel evaporated. If there's any sign of it, you'll need to give the carb a good cleaning.

I might have the service manual for that unit, I'll just need to dig through my laptop.

 

[kshansen]

Old red frame with a twin Briggs engine?

Ohm the oil pressure switch, but usually you can unplug them on the portables to bypass and keep it running (if there's oil in it, it'll be fine).

It says Generac every where but there is a Briggs logo on the muffler! Twin cylinder overhead valve engine.

Well I did "ohm" the oil pressure switch and with engine off shows closed then with engine running it shows open. Ran it with ohm meter hooked up for close to two hours and never went to closed. Then removed sender and hooked up pressure gauge and ran about half an hour checking pressure and it held nice and steady at 35 psi.

Did not have any way to put a real load on the engine short of killing power to the house and wife is doing stuff and would not like power going off!

Sure would be handy to have a load bank to hook up and make it really work! Did have an electric heater connected but a 1,500 watt heater doesn't hardly phase a generator rated at 10,000 watts continuous power!

 

[kshansen]

Like I said 2/2/19 could not get this one to repeat the "failure/shut-down" problem so decided to open up the carb and have a look.

Not the worst looking float bowl I had seen but down in the bottom there was a little black and tar like goop. So I cleaned it out good and reassembled. Still starts right up and sounds good, but then it did that the day it was quitting on me.

Not going to call this one fixed but at least I know a bit more about it if the problem shows it's head in future. Most important thing might be knowing that if the oil pressure switch does fail all I need to do is disconnect one wire. Also know that if the pressure switch does go to ground there is no time delay, as soon as you ground the wire engine stops!

 

[RZucker]

The 4K genset I had in my old motorhome (3K run, 4K surge) would just flat die if it was overloaded. My other half did not realize that the microwave, coffee maker and a 1000 watt electric heater would not play well together, plus the charger load and a few other 120v odds and ends.

 

[repowerguy]

I have heard of people making a redneck load bank out of craigslist electric ranges, you can even vary the load with the top elements. Just a thought.


Did not have any way to put a real load on the engine short of killing power to the house and wife is doing stuff and would not like power going off!

Sure would be handy to have a load bank to hook up and make it really work! Did have an electric heater connected but a 1,500 watt heater doesn't hardly phase a generator rated at 10,000 watts continuous power![/QUOTE]

 

[fast_st]

It says Generac every where but there is a Briggs logo on the muffler! Twin cylinder overhead valve engine.

Well I did "ohm" the oil pressure switch and with engine off shows closed then with engine running it shows open. Ran it with ohm meter hooked up for close to two hours and never went to closed. Then removed sender and hooked up pressure gauge and ran about half an hour checking pressure and it held nice and steady at 35 psi.

Did not have any way to put a real load on the engine short of killing power to the house and wife is doing stuff and would not like power going off!

Sure would be handy to have a load bank to hook up and make it really work! Did have an electric heater connected but a 1,500 watt heater doesn't hardly phase a generator rated at 10,000 watts continuous power!

Drive around the neighborhood and pick up some discarded electric ovens on trash day. Or if you have a small budget, $30 gets you two 5kw elements in a hot water heater rebuild kit from the box store, add into a water tank and weld on a couple fittings. that'll give you 10k and hot water too.

 

[kshansen]

$30 gets you two 5kw elements in a hot water heater rebuild kit from the box store, add into a water tank and weld on a couple fittings. that'll give you 10k and hot water too.

Now that's an idea. Get an old 55 gallon drum and mount them in it and fill with water.

But as I'm only dealing with this one genset and would only need to run the test once might not be worth the time and money to build a test "load bank" But I do have a good working used stove in the garage and the power cord that plugs into the genset just need to take the plug off one end and hook to the stove.

 

[fast_st]

Now that's an idea. Get an old 55 gallon drum and mount them in it and fill with water.

But as I'm only dealing with this one genset and would only need to run the test once might not be worth the time and money to build a test "load bank" But I do have a good working used stove in the garage and the power cord that plugs into the genset just need to take the plug off one end and hook to the stove.

Sounds like an air cooled load bank. its also possible to jumper the door switch and run upper and lower elements at the same time.

For my generators with the 50A 120/240v plugs, I've made an adapter to power the 50a welder and a 30A 120 v rv plug

 

[old-iron-habit]

Now that's an idea. Get an old 55 gallon drum and mount them in it and fill with water.

But as I'm only dealing with this one genset and would only need to run the test once might not be worth the time and money to build a test "load bank" But I do have a good working used stove in the garage and the power cord that plugs into the genset just need to take the plug off one end and hook to the stove.

Then plumb that 55 gals of hot water to your pressure washer and load test and wash the toys at the same time.

 

[crane operator]

Or you could just do what I would do- shove it back in the shed, and deal with it next time the power goes out. I plan ahead for events like that, keeps life interesting.

No need to fix it now, I'll need something to do in 4 years too. And if you fix the current problem, it will just have a different problem from sitting for 4 years, this way you at least know the first thing you will have to fix.

You goofy mechanics and wanting everything right. Come over to the dark side, pretend your a operator, if it ain't broke- you ain't trying.

In 4 years no one will even need electricity anymore, all the bad coal plants will be shut down and we'll live on solar power. The internal combustion engine will be relegated to the dust heap of history as a stinky waste of precious dino juice, that we should have just left down in the ground. We can all be hunter gatherers again....

 

[petepilot]

a

Or you could just do what I would do- shove it back in the shed, and deal with it next time the power goes out. I plan ahead for events like that, keeps life interesting.

No need to fix it now, I'll need something to do in 4 years too. And if you fix the current problem, it will just have a different problem from sitting for 4 years, this way you at least know the first thing you will have to fix.

You goofy mechanics and wanting everything right. Come over to the dark side, pretend your a operator, if it ain't broke- you ain't trying.

In 4 years no one will even need electricity anymore, all the bad coal plants will be shut down and we'll live on solar power. The internal combustion engine will be relegated to the dust heap of history as a stinky waste of precious dino juice, that we should have just left down in the ground. We can all be hunter gatherers again....

and we`ll all be drinkin that green bubble up an eatin that rainbow stew

 

[petepilot]

Then plumb that 55 gals of hot water to your pressure washer and load test and wash the toys at the same time.

thats a good idea

 

[John C.]

If we have to live with solar power, does than mean I get to stop working at dark?

 

[petepilot]

If we have to live with solar power, does than mean I get to stop working at dark?

maybe not ,i read some garbage last night claiming there will soon be an implant that will allow you to see in the dark, aoc says it`ll be free

 

[kshansen]

Or you could just do what I would do- shove it back in the shed, and deal with it next time the power goes out. I plan ahead for events like that, keeps life interesting.

No need to fix it now, I'll need something to do in 4 years too. And if you fix the current problem, it will just have a different problem from sitting for 4 years, this way you at least know the first thing you will have to fix.

You goofy mechanics and wanting everything right. Come over to the dark side, pretend your a operator, if it ain't broke- you ain't trying.

Well if you go back to my first few words in this thread maybe I do now qualify as an "operator"
Quote: Warning this is long and not even that interesting or important!

Might need to get it working when weather warms up, if power goes out then the barley soda might get warm before I can drink it all. Not worried about that lite stuff the son-in-law drinks just the good stuff!

 

[crane operator]

Well if you go back to my first few words in this thread maybe I do now qualify as an "operator"
Quote: Warning this is long and not even that interesting or important!

Leave it to a retired mechanic to still know operators- "not interesting or important"- you're the man

 

[kshansen]

Leave it to a retired mechanic to still know operators- "not interesting or important"- you're the man

Yes but if it wasn't for "operators" we would have little work!