Harbor Freight Predator 8750 Watt Open-Frame Inverter Generator Troubleshooting ideas

[5030]

I went to harbor freight ro get a few throw away hammers, some nitrile gloves and a look thru the store. Still, the only things i see there that i really like are their line of rolling tool boxes. Those are built real nice. I will not buy anything with a cord or a motor from this place.

You are missing out of some great tools.

 

[5030]

I own and use their Pro-Tig 205 Tig welder and a pair of plasma cutters, one high amp for the CNC plasma table and the other for general shop use and my employees use them all the time as well. So far, 3 years and 0 failures.

 

[5030]

Far as the inverter genny is concerned, I bought a Champion years ago and it runs like a top. Sounds like it's a motor issue not the inverter head.

 

[BryceSteiner]

I own and use their Pro-Tig 205 Tig welder and a pair of plasma cutters, one high amp for the CNC plasma table and the other for general shop use and my employees use them all the time as well. So far, 3 years and 0 failures.

I used to despise HF but I needed something one time and got something, then started going some more. Now I'm there all the time. I recently bought their hammer drill, works great. SDS Max, works great. Got a small DC welder - love it. Now I'm beginning to replace my DeWalt tool collection both at home and at work with Hercules. They work just as good (or better in the case of the Impact driver) and I like that if something craps out I just take it back. Their hand tools are generally good. Their fluid hand pump has worked phenomenal compared to the cheap one from Napa. And their impact sockets? Yup. I weld them on to things, cut them to make new tools, etc. Their cheap enough and no problems.

 

[5030]

Never broke one of their impact sockets even using them on my IR 1" air impact driver

 

[bcs001]

I finally got back to some of the initial troubleshooting today but didn’t make much progress. Removed the plug and put a little oil in the cylinder. Also checked oil level which was good then drained. It didn’t look to have much metallic or smell unusual.

With spark plug and oil drain plug removed I did notice a very slow pull on the starter rope seemed to feel somewhat normal but with any harder/faster pull, the friction level goes up significantly. This seems like it’s the opposite of what to expect with the auto decompression.

Does this point to a mechanical problem with the cam/decompression mechanism and would it explain the difference in friction based on the pull speed or are there other possibilities that could cause this.