That is why I fell in love with small engines. There is nothing more rewarding than pulling one of someone's trash and bringing back to life again. It never gets old.
Based on the comments I've read both past/present, it's clear there's no shortage of people that you've helped. Imo you'd of made an effective teacher in a literal classroom setting. Always glad to see a new upload from JC, and I'm looking forward to the next video-that and seeing 250k subs in the near future.
James, I just sold the 1850 Colman for $50 that I had for more years than I can remember and was always a cold-blooded , which I informed new owner. But it never failed to start or run. On one Santana wind event here in SoCal, it ran 4 days straight, keeping mine and 2 neighbors' refrigerators running. Great save, and it will do the job and run reliable. It just needs oil and gas. Have a Happy New York and a very Good Up Coming Year. Keep Posting.
Hey, Jim, you inspired me to fix something. So I just dug into my wife’s broken upright vacuum cleaner. The only problem is I couldn’t find a compression release circuit. 😂 Happy holidays, my friend!
So patient we all are. Thank you James C for spending a class day with us. You deserve a coffee and take the family out for a nice dinner. He's a magic man..
You just demonstrated something I’ve been saying for years James, the difference between an average mechanic and a really good mechanic is their diagnosis skills. Any mechanic can fire the parts canon and replace parts but it takes real skill to be able to diagnose a problem accurately and therefore reduce the cost of both parts and labor. I would have taken one look at that jet and said it’s clean and it only took a tiny scrape with the drill bit to fix the problem. I probably would have replaced the carburettor. Well done and cheers.
I was surprised by the amount of carbon in the combustion chamber. Makes me wonder if the previous owner had to run it with the choke partially closed. Or maybe incomplete combustion from the tight exaust valve. You saved another one from the scrap heap!
Another great video! I love those old flat head Briggs. As a kid in the late 60's we would ride our bikes down the alleyways and picked up mowers put out for the trash. Most of the fixes were so simple. We made nice money during the summer selling the fixes! Thanks for the nostalgia rush! Oh yeah the gas tank seems to have quite a bit of wobble back and forth in your last test.
You are a great mechanic. It is because you do your research and take your time repairing these machines. They were designed for the last 30 years with a factor called design obsolescence, which makes it even better that you override the status quo. Older machines were built a lot better and could use a bit of retrofit, but still are fit-- for their jobs--
Wow, I thought that was a junk engine with a fatal rod knock for sure! Never would’ve guessed that it could be brought back to life and work as designed. Excellent video as always, James!
Nice Generator. I got the same one 1,5 Years ago from a Yunkyard. Its a Endress Generator with Briggs & Stratton Engine. 230V, 50Hz, 1500W. All I had to do is replacing the Capacitor, and it runs. The green colour is the same as yours, but the Airfilter and Housing of mine is like your other Machine. To avoid the Vibrations of the Fuel Tank, i took a piece of Rubber down below, and clamped it. Greetings from Germany! 🙋♂
Hello Mr. James. Excellent video, good job, that generator was brand new and complete for being 1994... thanks for giving all the information and showing us how to repair and maintain our generators... I also wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope your TH-cam project continues to move forward... my best wishes, best regards from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷...
That generator just needed a valve adjustment to get it up and running again, not bad for a machine that was thrown away and had no compression, very nice work James!
James, thank you for making these videos. Your hands on approach to teaching small engine repair is excellent and very easy to follow. In a future video, I would like to see you diagnose and repair a home backup generator like a Kohler, Generac, or surplus military generator.
I bought a machine like that At Sams years ago. It lived in the bed of my truck for about 15 years before it finally gave up. We used it almost daily for running skill saws an drills. I thought it was a great machine for what i needed
Where in the world does Jason keep finding these things ??? Everyday I keep my eyes on the lookout scavaging. I dont find anything even close or a tenth of what he keeps digging up
You'd be surprised what winds up at the dump. Well now they're called recycling centers. When I was a young many years ago, I did pretty well repairing all sorts of things I found at the dump and selling them at a local auction.
James, I use a square hardwood block with a valve guide size drilled perpendicular in the block. I then sand the valve end on the disc portion of my belt sander. I lap the valves first, measure the overall length and then sand one valve down the required amount. I then check in the block and continue until I have required clearance. Then repeat for the next valve. Valve recession is a problem in newer engines.
Back in the 90s I built 5hp Briggs for kart racing. One of my customers was a master machinist but knew nothing about how to make power out of ICE engines so he bought my motors. One day he came by with a present for me. It was a custom made fixture that held a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel, a valve, an indicated adjustment wheel to set the valve length and a dial indicator. You could put the valve in it, zero it then dial in exactly how much to take off. Saved me a LOT of time and effort. Kind of overkill but when you have to do it 4-6 times a day, it was awfully nice.
Another great video! Myself, I prefer to clean the top end and lap the valves before setting the valve clearance. You were fortunate to get all the head bolts out. I’ve broken a few in my past! That is basically the end of the project! 🙂
I own an old pulse i bought it second hand in 2095 I use it to run power tools from my van, I fitted a bit of rubber weather strip between the case and the fuel tank, my one rubbed a hole in the tank with vibration. I stuck a patch with epoxy over the hole, the machine is still running strong. It doesn't matter if the power is dirty in my case as the generator only drives drills and grinders etc which it copes with easily. But thanks for the video showing how to dismantle the machine, luckily as yet no problems except for the tank, oil, filters and 1 spark plug..
Its always so interesting watching you diagnose and repair these machines. I have learned so much. I try to diagnose issues before I hear what you think the problem is. I am getting better at it. Thanks for that. Happy New year!
Hey James another excellent video. I would love to see you do a video specifically explaining how to fine tune different types of carbs. What to look out for in terms of how the engine should run, sound etc.
Thank you James for educating us through 2024 and saving so much stuff from scrap. That has got to be the poorest design ever, looks like the accountant did it. Well done for persevering and look forward to more learning in '25. Happy New Year.
At your full load 1500 W + 100W volts are down to 105, so your output is no longer 1600W and real output is down to around 1423 W. The generator starts limiting itself out of max power. Do you agree? I like very much your videos. You are very professional.
Nice rescue, James. This little gennie would be OK to run an incandescent light stand, maybe a corded drill or saw. With that nasty looking quasi-sine wave and enormous THD, I'd advise against running LED lights or even cordless battery chargers - don't forget that LED lights contain capacitors and sometimes other components, and most battery chargers for cordless devices these days are "smart", contain charge controller chips, capacitors, and inductors.
I agree. So at this time what can power this dirty be used for? Other than incandescent lights. Could an old “dumb” car battery charger be used to charge a lead-acid which in turn would charge a lithium battery bank? Lots of conversion losses, sure, but I’m trying to see a use for these old thrown away gems.
I have one of these generators and I never thought it was very good. I suspected that it was dirty power so I only used it for lighting on my farm. I replaced it with a 2000 watt Honda and put it on the shelf. It always ran well but the Honda is much better and I could use it for electronics as well.
I own an identical one just like this. Picked it up a a second hand store a few years back. Problem was it requires a valve job as it had no compression . Needed cab work as well and a good electrical system cleanup. Parts are super hard to find so be very careful when doing work on them. It took quite a bit to get the valves seating right and closing p[roperly but I as able to do it. From there everything else was quite easy to get back into proper operating oder. It now runs like a dream for an old machine. I liked it so much I kept it. It now starts on two pulls. It's was built in the same year as tis one shown here. Repair was successful. Like I said I still have it and it looks just as good as the one shown here.
As a suggestion, you might be able to use some tubing over the needle so you can adjust in situ. that cutout would privide enough clearance, and, when done and final, you just pull the tubing out and voila. Thank you for posting James. Merry Christmas
Absolutely would work. But I would be leery of putting such a thing on a customer's generator. They might be tempted to screw with it and end up blowing the thing up.
This seems to be a very nice unit, compact and powerful, and a Flathead engine is always a plus when it comes to reliability and lifespan. Only thing I´m missing here is an AVR, but tother than that, this was an excellent episode!
About 15 years ago we had a wind storm here in Oregon and took the power out in my area for a few days. I borrowed one just like the gray one from my parents and hooked it up to my more basic gas furnace to get the house warmed up, it ran the blower motor enough to fire off the heater for a day or so, I did notice the furnace was quieter running but didn't know that low power was a bad thing. When the grid power came back the motor was fried, I guess it was running but similar to brown out condition. Lesson learned.
The ones I've had ran at partial choke until it warmed up but under load it ran perfect. Those are really good little machines in a pinch. I sold all 3 of the ones I had after hurricane Helene. Thanks!
I usually stick with a brass brush for removing carbon, it does not chew into the aluminum much if at all. The circles on the top of the piston were almost totally sanded off here.
You never know what people do with generators when they buy them. I picked up a 2000 watt generator about a year ago with an 04/05 production date that had never been out of the box. Who buys a brand new generator, keeps it for 18 years, and never uses it? I recently picked up a 16 year old push mower that was only used once. The original owner bought it, overfilled it with oil, used it til it quit, and then just parked it and never touched it again. It looks brand new once I cleaned it up, and essentially is. Despite it's age, this generator might have only been used a couple of times. You just never know.
Propably they bought the generator as emergency, but no emergency happened for 18 years, so they had no use of it. Kind of like an fire extinguisher. You buy it for peace of mind, and never need to use it.
When I lived in VA, we once bought a generator just because it was a screaming deal and figured it might come in handy one day. It sat in the garage unopened, new in the box for 6 years, never needed it. Then that hurricane came through around 2002 or so. I opened it up, put it together, oil and fuel, battery was dead (it had electric start) but also had a pull start and fired right up on the 3rd or 4th pull. That thing ran a full 10 days straight before they got the power back on. I was even able to get the battery charged and working. Only had to use it one more time a couple years later and that was only for a few hours. I gave it to a friend of mine when I moved to FL a few years later. He still has it but has never had to use it.
any engine i work on around 2000's and later, i always always make the jet slightly bigger when i clean it with those torch tip cleaners. The EPA emissions here make engines run lean as possible from factory and making the jet bigger always makes them run way better and lasting longer.
Someone definitely laid this machine on it's side at some point. I have gotten several mowers out of the trash that ran like this on first startup. Oil gets everywhere when they are laid over, and you just have to burn it off.
One trick I have found for carbs is to buy a clone and use it to fix the OEM one. I recently had a machine with a Nikki carb that had a needle and seat assembly failure. The rebuild kit was $61, and the needle and seat assembly had to be purchased separately. Since a clone carb was available for $18, I purchased a clone carb and used the gaskets and needle and seat assembly from it to fix the OEM carb. I kept all the OEM jetting, but used the clone parts to fix the non essential parts, and did it for less than a fourth of what it would have cost me to purchase the OEM rebuild kit.
So I was wondering. What James did for work, still or after TH-cam came along? I'm just curious. It still amazes me. What backgrounds people have and end up doing on TH-cam. I don't really have a TH-cam channel. But it was a machinist for 35 years before I retired. But I think I would be one of those guys that cut lawns for free on TH-cam If I really wanted to spend that much time on TH-cam.
On having to ream out that main jet - I run every carb through the ultrasonic for two 30-minute cycles, rotating all the parts halfway through. I’ve always thought your very short runs were much too short and this particular time bears that out.
Thank you Jim for this Boxing Day Special. Keep up the good work in the New Year and best wishes to you and yours. I look forward to your educated and methodical approach to problem solving. I continue to learn from your videos.👍
Excellent video as always. I have one suggestion: When testing capacitors, there are two factors - the uF which in this case was right on the money, and the other is ESR. Equivelent Series Resistance. The capacitor in a brushless generator limits the amount of current going into the field coil of the rotor. I had to figure that out on my own - seems there is very little explanation on Google. I am wondering if the capacitor had a higher than normal ESR, if that would cause the power to be so dirty. Looking at the scope, you can clearly see the second and third harmonics. Happy Holidays!
Thank you so much for posting this excellent video. I really enjoy how you saved the PowerMate device. Is there a way to improve the output electric power quality so that it is safer for powering smart devices? Also, I notice that in your test, you have the light and the power cord for the light right in front of the muffler. Won't the hot exhaust gases damage them?
That is why I fell in love with small engines. There is nothing more rewarding than pulling one of someone's trash and bringing back to life again. It never gets old.
I used to tell my wife that James was my Small Engine Spirit Animal. Now, I say he's like the Bob Ross of small engines! Love these videos!
🙄
Based on the comments I've read both past/present, it's clear there's no shortage of people that you've helped. Imo you'd of made an effective teacher in a literal classroom setting. Always glad to see a new upload from JC, and I'm looking forward to the next video-that and seeing 250k subs in the near future.
James, I just sold the 1850 Colman for $50 that I had for more years than I can remember and was always a cold-blooded
, which I informed new owner.
But it never failed to start or run. On one Santana wind event here in SoCal, it ran 4 days straight, keeping mine and 2 neighbors' refrigerators running.
Great save, and it will do the job and run reliable. It just needs oil and gas.
Have a Happy New York and a very Good Up Coming Year.
Keep Posting.
I bought mine new for $399.00 in November of 1998. Always started on first pull, but disappointed to see the high THD.
Thank you, Jason for finding a diamond in the rough and saving this from filling a landfill. Great work, James.
Hey, Jim, you inspired me to fix something. So I just dug into my wife’s broken upright vacuum cleaner. The only problem is I couldn’t find a compression release circuit. 😂 Happy holidays, my friend!
🤣🤣🤣 that's awesome!
Too funny..., unless she was expecting you to fix it! May be time for a Craig's List treasure find!?
You did Eric O's "No Mercy Reversey" on that headbolt. Well done.👏
So patient we all are. Thank you James C for spending a class day with us. You deserve a coffee and take the family out for a nice dinner.
He's a magic man..
You just demonstrated something I’ve been saying for years James, the difference between an average mechanic and a really good mechanic is their diagnosis skills. Any mechanic can fire the parts canon and replace parts but it takes real skill to be able to diagnose a problem accurately and therefore reduce the cost of both parts and labor. I would have taken one look at that jet and said it’s clean and it only took a tiny scrape with the drill bit to fix the problem. I probably would have replaced the carburettor. Well done and cheers.
I was surprised by the amount of carbon in the combustion chamber. Makes me wonder if the previous owner had to run it with the choke partially closed. Or maybe incomplete combustion from the tight exaust valve. You saved another one from the scrap heap!
Wonder if someone ran it on 2-stroke fuel?
Good morning Jim. Hope you and your family had a great Christmas. Another great video. Love your channel.
Dirty power and all, it was still cool to watch you bring it back to life. Also good to see that some folks take care of their little genys.
Another great video! I love those old flat head Briggs. As a kid in the late 60's we would ride our bikes down the alleyways and picked up mowers put out for the trash. Most of the fixes were so simple. We made nice money during the summer selling the fixes! Thanks for the nostalgia rush! Oh yeah the gas tank seems to have quite a bit of wobble back and forth in your last test.
There are two I found Musty1 several years ago then one day there was James. Thanks James another awesome video.
I just had to smile when that engine banged off on the second pull. Well done!
You are a great mechanic. It is because you do your research and take your time repairing these machines. They were designed for the last 30 years with a factor called design obsolescence, which makes it even better that you override the status quo. Older machines were built a lot better and could use a bit of retrofit, but still are fit-- for their jobs--
Around 4 minutes in and I'm already clicking the Like button! I really enjoy these kinds of video and James' are top notch. Thanks
That genny was doing the gas tank shuffle😂. Nice to see it back to life.
Wow, I thought that was a junk engine with a fatal rod knock for sure! Never would’ve guessed that it could be brought back to life and work as designed. Excellent video as always, James!
Nice Generator. I got the same one 1,5 Years ago from a Yunkyard. Its a Endress Generator with Briggs & Stratton Engine. 230V, 50Hz, 1500W.
All I had to do is replacing the Capacitor, and it runs.
The green colour is the same as yours, but the Airfilter and Housing of mine is like your other Machine.
To avoid the Vibrations of the Fuel Tank, i took a piece of Rubber down below, and clamped it.
Greetings from Germany! 🙋♂
The surgeon was at it again, great video.
Every vid is like a Master’s class in small engines.
Hello Mr. James. Excellent video, good job, that generator was brand new and complete for being 1994... thanks for giving all the information and showing us how to repair and maintain our generators... I also wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope your TH-cam project continues to move forward... my best wishes, best regards from Puerto Rico 🇵🇷...
That generator just needed a valve adjustment to get it up and running again, not bad for a machine that was thrown away and had no compression, very nice work James!
A new video the day after Christmas, best gift ever! Thanks James
James, thank you for making these videos. Your hands on approach to teaching small engine repair is excellent and very easy to follow. In a future video, I would like to see you diagnose and repair a home backup generator like a Kohler, Generac, or surplus military generator.
I bought a machine like that At Sams years ago. It lived in the bed of my truck for about 15 years before it finally gave up. We used it almost daily for running skill saws an drills. I thought it was a great machine for what i needed
Where in the world does Jason keep finding these things ??? Everyday I keep my eyes on the lookout scavaging. I dont find anything even close or a tenth of what he keeps digging up
I believe Jim has said that Jason has a connection, or perhaps works at, the local dump.
You'd be surprised what winds up at the dump. Well now they're called recycling centers. When I was a young many years ago, I did pretty well repairing all sorts of things I found at the dump and selling them at a local auction.
Jason is not real, it's James's alter ego, like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne!
@JOHNDANIEL1 😁👍👍
A lot of good items end up at the dump due to a moving event and can’t take it with them.
James, I use a square hardwood block with a valve guide size drilled perpendicular in the block. I then sand the valve end on the disc portion of my belt sander. I lap the valves first, measure the overall length and then sand one valve down the required amount. I then check in the block and continue until I have required clearance. Then repeat for the next valve. Valve recession is a problem in newer engines.
Back in the 90s I built 5hp Briggs for kart racing. One of my customers was a master machinist but knew nothing about how to make power out of ICE engines so he bought my motors. One day he came by with a present for me. It was a custom made fixture that held a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel, a valve, an indicated adjustment wheel to set the valve length and a dial indicator. You could put the valve in it, zero it then dial in exactly how much to take off. Saved me a LOT of time and effort. Kind of overkill but when you have to do it 4-6 times a day, it was awfully nice.
Another great video!
Myself, I prefer to clean the top end and lap the valves before setting the valve clearance. You were fortunate to get all the head bolts out. I’ve broken a few in my past! That is basically the end of the project! 🙂
I own an old pulse i bought it second hand in 2095 I use it to run power tools from my van, I fitted a bit of rubber weather strip between the case and the fuel tank, my one rubbed a hole in the tank with vibration.
I stuck a patch with epoxy over the hole, the machine is still running strong.
It doesn't matter if the power is dirty in my case as the generator only drives drills and grinders etc which it copes with easily.
But thanks for the video showing how to dismantle the machine, luckily as yet no problems except for the tank, oil, filters and 1 spark plug..
Thanks!
Thanks!
@@jcondon1 For the education you have provided to me, its the least I could do. Happy new year.
Thanks, Happy New Year
Another excellent episode, James. Your knowledge is only exceeded by your skill. Thanks for sharing this great comeback with us.
Its always so interesting watching you diagnose and repair these machines. I have learned so much. I try to diagnose issues before I hear what you think the problem is. I am getting better at it. Thanks for that. Happy New year!
Hey James another excellent video. I would love to see you do a video specifically explaining how to fine tune different types of carbs. What to look out for in terms of how the engine should run, sound etc.
Thank you James for educating us through 2024 and saving so much stuff from scrap. That has got to be the poorest design ever, looks like the accountant did it. Well done for persevering and look forward to more learning in '25. Happy New Year.
That flat head engine will outlast the newer ohv engines even though it may not be as efficient. Simplicity. Great video.
At your full load 1500 W + 100W volts are down to 105, so your output is no longer 1600W and real output is down to around 1423 W. The generator starts limiting itself out of max power. Do you agree?
I like very much your videos. You are very professional.
Would love a video talking about power/signal quality, not too sure about all that stuff and would love to learn, keep up the awesome videos!
Another can't take your eyes away video. Thanks for what you do and Happy Holidays to you and your family! 😃
Nice rescue, James. This little gennie would be OK to run an incandescent light stand, maybe a corded drill or saw. With that nasty looking quasi-sine wave and enormous THD, I'd advise against running LED lights or even cordless battery chargers - don't forget that LED lights contain capacitors and sometimes other components, and most battery chargers for cordless devices these days are "smart", contain charge controller chips, capacitors, and inductors.
I agree. So at this time what can power this dirty be used for? Other than incandescent lights.
Could an old “dumb” car battery charger be used to charge a lead-acid which in turn would charge a lithium battery bank?
Lots of conversion losses, sure, but I’m trying to see a use for these old thrown away gems.
Thanks James - a real masterclass in mini generator revival. May 2025 be a bright one for you. Bill B - UK.
May 2025? But it's not even January 2025...
¡Gracias!
Thanks!
Good job Jim. Thanks for the view.
I have one of these generators and I never thought it was very good. I suspected that it was dirty power so I only used it for lighting on my farm. I replaced it with a 2000 watt Honda and put it on the shelf. It always ran well but the Honda is much better and I could use it for electronics as well.
I own an identical one just like this. Picked it up a a second hand store a few years back. Problem was it requires a valve job as it had no compression . Needed cab work as well and a good electrical system cleanup. Parts are super hard to find so be very careful when doing work on them. It took quite a bit to get the valves seating right and closing p[roperly but I as able to do it. From there everything else was quite easy to get back into proper operating oder. It now runs like a dream for an old machine. I liked it so much I kept it. It now starts on two pulls. It's was built in the same year as tis one shown here. Repair was successful. Like I said I still have it and it looks just as good as the one shown here.
Good job with the explanation of what you are doing. Good find on the plaque in the jet.
As soon as you pulled the cover off I knew that was a model 9. Love those little engines on mini bikes
Nice to see my favourite pullover, James. That is still looking good !
As a suggestion, you might be able to use some tubing over the needle so you can adjust in situ. that cutout would privide enough clearance, and, when done and final, you just pull the tubing out and voila. Thank you for posting James. Merry Christmas
Absolutely would work. But I would be leery of putting such a thing on a customer's generator. They might be tempted to screw with it and end up blowing the thing up.
Hi Jim, hope Christmas was good for you and yours........now, let's get going on this😁
I did little research . The day the engine was built ,. June 3 1994 WAS a friday ! 😊
"Is it time to punch out and go home yet? Sheesh...."
Ha! Liquid lunch maybe?
This seems to be a very nice unit, compact and powerful, and a Flathead engine is always a plus when it comes to reliability and lifespan. Only thing I´m missing here is an AVR, but tother than that, this was an excellent episode!
About 15 years ago we had a wind storm here in Oregon and took the power out in my area for a few days. I borrowed one just like the gray one from my parents and hooked it up to my more basic gas furnace to get the house warmed up, it ran the blower motor enough to fire off the heater for a day or so, I did notice the furnace was quieter running but didn't know that low power was a bad thing. When the grid power came back the motor was fried, I guess it was running but similar to brown out condition. Lesson learned.
HVAC equipment seems to be most prone to failure when voltage, hertz or THD go out of range.
Excellent, again, James. Our thanks to you, Jason, the unkown 'donors' and to the donor of the lft, all thosee many months' ago!
Onwards!
Merry Christmas James
I'm glad they sent your video my way. I like this kind of stuff .
Great repair as always. Love the meticulous repair. I wouldn't have thought about putting a micro drill bit through the main jet to clean it up
I like how you explain what you are doing, and what each item does. I diy small engines and have learned more from watching your videos. 👍🏽👍🏽
Great save on this one! It might electronically rough around the edges, but could run a sump pump in a power outage rainstorm!
I had it down for 3 pulls. 😂 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Love your channel. Always learning😊
The ones I've had ran at partial choke until it warmed up but under load it ran perfect. Those are really good little machines in a pinch. I sold all 3 of the ones I had after hurricane Helene. Thanks!
I usually stick with a brass brush for removing carbon, it does not chew into the aluminum much if at all. The circles on the top of the piston were almost totally sanded off here.
Yep brass cone brush in drill works great.
Is the 'dancing gas tank' a bonus feature? Or is it the video that makes it look like it's dancing? Anyway...cool video James!
Everyone else - hard to start, took 5-15 pulls. James - hard to start, took two pulls. 😂😉🔧👍
You never know what people do with generators when they buy them. I picked up a 2000 watt generator about a year ago with an 04/05 production date that had never been out of the box. Who buys a brand new generator, keeps it for 18 years, and never uses it? I recently picked up a 16 year old push mower that was only used once. The original owner bought it, overfilled it with oil, used it til it quit, and then just parked it and never touched it again. It looks brand new once I cleaned it up, and essentially is. Despite it's age, this generator might have only been used a couple of times. You just never know.
I have a two year old duramax 13000 for the house and never did start it our put fuel in it. I'm just waiting for the day i need it, if ever.
@@frankwrogg2515 And then hope it works?, not really smart..
@@habana7638 Plus, shouldn't it be broken in before putting it to use?
Propably they bought the generator as emergency, but no emergency happened for 18 years, so they had no use of it. Kind of like an fire extinguisher. You buy it for peace of mind, and never need to use it.
When I lived in VA, we once bought a generator just because it was a screaming deal and figured it might come in handy one day. It sat in the garage unopened, new in the box for 6 years, never needed it. Then that hurricane came through around 2002 or so. I opened it up, put it together, oil and fuel, battery was dead (it had electric start) but also had a pull start and fired right up on the 3rd or 4th pull. That thing ran a full 10 days straight before they got the power back on. I was even able to get the battery charged and working. Only had to use it one more time a couple years later and that was only for a few hours. I gave it to a friend of mine when I moved to FL a few years later. He still has it but has never had to use it.
Another great video from Mr. Condon - the king of generators! Happy Holidays to you and your family and all the best for 2025 😊
any engine i work on around 2000's and later, i always always make the jet slightly bigger when i clean it with those torch tip cleaners. The EPA emissions here make engines run lean as possible from factory and making the jet bigger always makes them run way better and lasting longer.
Someone definitely laid this machine on it's side at some point. I have gotten several mowers out of the trash that ran like this on first startup. Oil gets everywhere when they are laid over, and you just have to burn it off.
Thank you James. Happy Christmas to you.
I am always blown away by the things you can do, thank you for your videos
Seafoam works well for cleaning up varnished carburetors.
Oven cleaner works pretty good on that thick carbon i use sprayway oven cleaner , great job james
Nice video again James. Merry Christmas to you and your family 👍👍
One trick I have found for carbs is to buy a clone and use it to fix the OEM one. I recently had a machine with a Nikki carb that had a needle and seat assembly failure. The rebuild kit was $61, and the needle and seat assembly had to be purchased separately. Since a clone carb was available for $18, I purchased a clone carb and used the gaskets and needle and seat assembly from it to fix the OEM carb. I kept all the OEM jetting, but used the clone parts to fix the non essential parts, and did it for less than a fourth of what it would have cost me to purchase the OEM rebuild kit.
That's works if the clone is exact. I tried that with a clone on my generator and I ended up using the new clone. The OEM carb was too far gone.
I don't know if it would be correct to say a carburetor has "non essential parts". If its on there it's probably for a reason
Once left for dead comes back to life. Well done James.🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Good job again. Bit weird with the stator bolts and the tin covers. Certainly in excellent condition.
Another video another fixed generator. Always enjoy Thursday mornings cause I know a new fix is in store.
I like your new set up to machine down valves. Much better than using the side of a grinder wheel.
Nice job my friend keep it up Merry Christmas 🎄
I would definitely use this generator...for anything other than sensitive electronics...very nice machine considering the age :)
Excellent video, All of the carbon looks like someone used the wrong oil in it. Thanks for the video.
Super awesome video, we are the same DNA. I hope to find one of these in the trash soon. I have learned a lot from this video.
they are great little generators, just enough to run a fridge and lamp
I think that pilot screw is an air bleed not fuel supply. So to enrich the mixture turn the pilot screw inward clockwise.
that's one of the better Breaks and Scrappems....should run great for a long time....James...with few problems....good job
The smokw is probably from the disassembly, cleaning and reassembly.
Not a serious issue, I'd bet.
Probably stops ALL smoking after a bit..
Good Morning ! Hope you had a great Christmas. I got one of these years ago. I always ran mine dry of fuel, good little GEN. TAKE CARE..
I knew you would fix it, like a fine running machine, nice James
So I was wondering. What James did for work, still or after TH-cam came along? I'm just curious. It still amazes me. What backgrounds people have and end up doing on TH-cam. I don't really have a TH-cam channel. But it was a machinist for 35 years before I retired. But I think I would be one of those guys that cut lawns for free on TH-cam If I really wanted to spend that much time on TH-cam.
You done a really good job, Colin from London England ❤
On having to ream out that main jet - I run every carb through the ultrasonic for two 30-minute cycles, rotating all the parts halfway through.
I’ve always thought your very short runs were much too short and this particular time bears that out.
Thank you Jim for this Boxing Day Special. Keep up the good work in the New Year and best wishes to you and yours. I look forward to your educated and methodical approach to problem solving. I continue to learn from your videos.👍
Excellent video as always. I have one suggestion: When testing capacitors, there are two factors - the uF which in this case was right on the money, and the other is ESR. Equivelent Series Resistance. The capacitor in a brushless generator limits the amount of current going into the field coil of the rotor. I had to figure that out on my own - seems there is very little explanation on Google. I am wondering if the capacitor had a higher than normal ESR, if that would cause the power to be so dirty. Looking at the scope, you can clearly see the second and third harmonics. Happy Holidays!
Have you looked into Hapco tarnish remover...?
1) cleans push rods, valve stems, etc. Amazing stuff.
Very nice work, you always find away to fix it 😊
The noise you herd was the carbon build up hitting the head. I have seen it before. been there done that.
Great generator! So unique!
Thank you so much for posting this excellent video. I really enjoy how you saved the PowerMate device. Is there a way to improve the output electric power quality so that it is safer for powering smart devices? Also, I notice that in your test, you have the light and the power cord for the light right in front of the muffler. Won't the hot exhaust gases damage them?
Always a great video. I'm impressed with your patience...and consistency with your work.