If it can be popped out, fit a piece of round wooden dowel in the hole till your done.
That might work. I can mic the filter tube and try to find a dowel the same size. I pulled the filter a couple of times last night and put it back in and was amazed at how tight the fit was. The plastic between the filter area section of the tube was flexing to the point I was worried about it breaking before it actually slid into the metal fuel tube.
This is an older, low hours, honda EX5500 generator which has sat outside under a tarp for the last 10 years. It was my fathers before he passed away. Functionally, it only has two things currently wrong with it.
1) The voltage regulator for the generator has failed and I will replace that.
2) The tank has rust. Light surface rust inside and heavy rust at the fill and fuel guage openings. The parts store wants nearly $250 for a new tank which I feel is a rip-off. At this point, I am considering trying to repair the tank rather than replacing it.
Money is somewhere between tight and non-existant right now, so this plays a large roll in how I tackle this issue.
Here is some history on the generator:
My folks bought it new and put around 50 hours on it. After my father passed, we had a power outage while we were visiting and I started the generator for my mother. My father had built a steel sleeve through the wall of the well house for the exhaust from the generator. When I refueled it, I did not get the exhaust lined up correctly and it started a fire on the wall. After about 30 minutes the generator quit running again. When I checked on it, I found flames going up the wall and all the way across the ceiling. I got the fire out by the time the fire department arived and they put out the coals which were trying to restart. We used the generator one more time after the fire, but the voltage kept spiking instead of remaining stable. It was put under a tarp for storage until we could get it fixed, but never got to it. This year I finally got around to the repairs and took it to a shop for an estimate. They quoted $1400 just to get the engine running again so I took it back home and looked at it myself. I replaced the oil, oil filter, spark plugs and battery. Pulled and flushed out the fuel tank and put a gallon of clean fuel in it. The engine purrs like a kitten but the generator has no voltage output. Sure glad I have the habit of turning off and running out all the fuel when shutting things down. I've troubleshot the voltage problem down to the voltage regulator. Simple repair except for the $300 cost of the part.
We actually got really lucky with the fire, as the heat from it actually scorched the paint off one corner of the fuel tank and melted the fuel guage. I bought a new fuel guage already. Total cost of repairs, so far, $159.13 (voltage regulator not purchased yet). Eventually I expect to replace the tank, but it may be a year or two (translates to ten if I know myself and it doesn't have clogging issues).
I'll get some pix when I go to the ranch later today.
