Oh, I forgot...very wonderful time out there and the generator ran great without a hiccup!

 

I'm on board with DIY carb repair.

My FIL had a Buick that balked all the time. One day he pulled into my yard and stalled. I had him start it and found that choking it made it run smooth. After shut off, I cracked the fuel line and it sprayed fuel at me, indicating the diaphragm fuel pump was fine. I diagnosed that it needed a carb kit.

He said he just had the carb worked on. I promised to pay for the parts if it didn't help, got the parts and went after it.

As I was pulling out the main jet, my FIL, who was watching me like a hawk, said, "You don't need to do that. I've watched this process 3 times and nobody ever took that part out."

Under the main jet was a curl of brass machine chip. Needless to say, he happily paid for the kit.

He said the car had been balking or stalling randomly since it was new.

 

These generators should be exercised every 4 to 6 weeks and should be done for a good hour so that all the parts warm up properly. Also vary the load so that it does not run at a specific power draw for the whole time. I run mine for a few minutes to get it warmed up with just the onboard charger pulling power, then I will turn on an electric heater for a bit then add the AC. After about 30 minutes running both I turn off the heater and let the AC keep running for a bit. After about an hour total of running I shut off the AC and let the generator run to cool down without a load and then shut it down.

If you don't exercise your generator you need to use the storage fogger that is recommended by Onan but you need to make sure that you remove any fuel from the system. If you do this you then need to probably clean/replace the plugs because IIRC the fogger is an oil for storage.

 

I cant even imagine trying to follow the regimented deferred maintenance..... If I ran it as often as they suggest then it would be worn out before I'd have a chance to use it camping.

I just start it up every couple months and let it power something that needs electricity. Any more than it takes to warm the engine is a waste of time and fuel. If its hot outside then I also make sure to turn all electrical running devices off and let it run for around 10 minutes allowing the generator and engine cool down. And.....run STA-BIL marine in the fuel. With our new crappy ethanol fuel, that parts important. Been working great for years.

 

Looks like I missed a few updates. So i figure I'd post an update.

The generator has been running like a champ since I tore the carb apart. Took it out last weekend and not even hiccup.

Now I'm looking into an inverter charger so we can power some of the 120V devices (such as the coffee maker) without having to run the gen all the time...better suited for another thread though.

 

Glad to hear its working out.....