Generator Help Needed

MossRoad · Oct 25, 2001

Hope this is in the right forum. Had bad storms here. Power will be out for a week. I have a 4000 watt Coleman generator with an 8 HP Briggs. It runs under no electrical load fine, but if you put on load, you can hear the engine start surging up and down. There is a little piece of wire that starts moving the throttle back and forth. I assume this is the governor, as there is no manual throttle. Is there any adjustment so that this thing is not so sensitive? Any suggestions quickly would be much appreciated.

 MossRoad

kubmech · Oct 25, 2001

Moss, when was the last time you ran that generator? Sounds like stale fuel or the stale fuel that's been sitting in the carb float bowl may have gummed things up a bit. You may need a good carb cleaning. (Post in lawn and garden for this one, that's where most of the small engine questions get asked)
Does the surging eventually stop or does it just continue?

JJT · Oct 25, 2001

If it's surging under an electrical load that's to be expected. Even without a load my coleman 6250 Watt surges. I run it once a month for 30 minutes and condition the fuel, so stale fuel or gummed up carb is not the problem. As long as it doesn't stall leave it alone. There's no adjustment to my Coleman/Briggs. My brother's Honda is just the opposite - runs smooth and only revs when your pulling a load, (also 5X the price).

kubmech · Oct 25, 2001

JJT, it does'nt seem normal for your generator to continue to surge under load. If it was the opposite, surging without a load, I'd buy that (alot of the emissions complient engines tend to do that until under load) An initial surge can be expected, but a constant surge is not normal.

JJT · Oct 25, 2001

I've 2 friends with coleman's - they all seem to run rough and loud. I put a tractor muffler on mine to quiet it down. I'll live with the surging, there's no adjustment on the carb, and it's done this since it was new. 5 years later it sill starts on 2 pulls.

kubmech · Oct 25, 2001

O.K. I geuss I can't argue with that. But Geeze, let me at that thing. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

JATO_RaT · Oct 25, 2001

Sorry Moss, its because its a BS motor, next time spend a little extra and get a Honda, they are well worth it.

P.S. great signature you got there!

Bird · Oct 25, 2001

MossRoad, I'm not as good a small engine mechanic as I'd like to be, but I'm a bit inclined to agree with Kubmech. And if you'd like more information about a Briggs motor, try http://www.briggsandstratton.com. I printed out parts manuals for the 3 briggs motors I have (had to replace the carburetor on two of them this year). I made the mistake of taking the 3rd one to a dealer and they put a carburetor kit in it (with the labor costs it would have been cheaper for me to replace the carburetor with a new one and it would have run even better)./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

StanInCalif · Oct 25, 2001

Surging is usually caused by a lean mixture. If it's an older engine, with adj. jets- no problem. On a newer engine with fixed jets, I would suspect plugging of the passages in the carburator, from sitting too long.

stan

MossRoad · Oct 26, 2001

I think I found the problem to be I didn't have the loads on the legs balanced. The refridgerator and furnace are on the same leg. The well is 220, so it is on both legs. I found that the basement circuit is on the other leg, so I turned on all of the lights on that circuit(about 13 of them), and started turning them off until the generator started running smoothly. About 5-6 lights seems to equal the furnace and refridgerator. Just a little surge now when the furnace or refridgerator starts up, but goes smooth after 1-2 seconds. As far as BS vs Honda; At the time I bought the generator, Honda wasn't available, about 10 years ago. I have three other BS engines, 2.5 HP lawn mower, 5 HP tiller and 8.5 HP riding mower, that run just fine, start on the first or second pull, have had the oil changed every year, original plugs and air cleaners. The gas is always treated with Stabil and I run my generator several times a year. However, only the generator has the governor assembly, the others are manual throttles.

About the noise, it is very loud. Does any one have a good source for a different muffler?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I appreciate it./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 MossRoad