fred heath Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Finally got the generator up and running. Having never owned this model, I'm not sure if this is normal behavior or not. The engine surges at idle. There is no load applied and I have the 120 volt breaker shut off at the generator. When I power up the mh the a/c and outlets work fine. It appeared that even with a load on, the idle speed of the generator never increased, and the throbing remains constant. Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated. fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanman Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 red heath Finally got the generator up and running. Having never owned this model, I'm not sure if this is normal behavior or not.The engine surges at idle. There is no load applied and I have the 120 volt breaker shut off at the generator. When I power up the mh the a/c and outlets work fine. It appeared that even with a load on, the idle speed of the generator never increased, and the throbing remains constant. Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated. fred Check the voltage with a meter, if it's going up and down with the surging of the gen don't use appliances, the surging voltages will damage them. Ours does this and I am not able to fix it yet. vanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 The best way to check the output is with a meter that will read frequency. That is a 3600 RPM generator and at 3600 the frequency should be 60 cycles. The voltage will follow the freq. If it is then it is running at the proper speed it may very maybe 58 to 62 cycles that's OK your house does the same thing, it should not hunt even at idle they have a altitude adjustment and if it's hunting at idle it probably is lean it can be adjusted if it's not all gummed up. Most people do not exercise their (I plead guilty your honor) generators and the carb gets gummy from stale fuel and the only fix is to remove it and give it a good cleaning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob C Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I run Sea Foam through all of my gas engines once in a while, including the Toyhouose. I have a standby generator at home and I run it about 1/2 hour per month just to keep it from gumming up. I put about a quart of gas properly mixed with Sea Foam in the tank and then run it empty. I then store a small amount of gas in the generator to keep everything from drying up. I have been told that I am over doing it by being this crazy about maintenance but the generator always starts on the first try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Stay-Bil is another good product to mix with the gas if the generator is going to sit for a long time (over the winter). My little portable one gets started every time I need it generally it starts (dumb luck I do nothing to it) my house generator gets started and loaded once a month that one I baby we get ice quite often in the winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
90toydolphin Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 i've run into small 4 cycle engines doing that and turned out to be the governor. my understanding is that adjusting it isn't easy and should be done by someone with the training and equipment to do it. warnings against trying to do it yourself is that it's easy to do it wrong and usually results in burning up the engine, rpms aren't controlled. if the carb doesn't solve it you may need to find someone to work on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred heath Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 Thanks to all who responded. The generator was running fine when I bought the toy. I removed it and bench cleaned everything. I finally figured out what happened ( I think.) The govener is contro;;ed by an air valve. Apparently while the unit was resting on my garage floor a rodent decided to build a nest inside. I found this by accident while running the unit to determine what was causing the problem. Suddenly all this tissue like substance was blowing around inside the housing. I removed the housing and used compressed air around the inside. Suddenly it looked like a New England snow storm. The generator still fluctuates slightly when running, but 80% better than it was. I think there may be some residual nest or body (ugh!) inside. Will continue with the air treatment and keep you posted. Vanman, this could be your problem as well. Worth a look. Thanks again to all that responded. fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Good find that is a problem that seems to plague all Onan gen sets I have a 5500 watt unit (not in the MH) that has broken 2 timing rotors due to mice inside of the generator it's self they build a nest you try to start the engine and the rotor collides with the nest and brakes the plastic rotor off. It's strange that they would think inside of an engine is a good place to live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanman Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 fred heath Vanman, this could be your problem as well. Worth a look. Thanks again to all that responded. fred Thanks, I don't remember looking at that, I was cleaning the carb/float bowl/filter. vanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanAatTheCape Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Finally got the generator up and running. Having never owned this model, I'm not sure if this is normal behavior or not. The engine surges at idle. There is no load applied and I have the 120 volt breaker shut off at the generator. When I power up the mh the a/c and outlets work fine. It appeared that even with a load on, the idle speed of the generator never increased, and the throbing remains constant. Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated. fred Sounds like "hunting" -- the governor wants the assigned rpm (probably 3600) and sounds like with no load your's is having problems - I gather it runs ok under load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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