QuestionI help maintain a Homelite Emergency Power Generator EH 4400HD that was purchased new in June of 1990.
The unit rarely gets used, and is stored in a water tight storage vented compartment. It is used for
Emergency Communications power backup for an Amateur Radio Repeater on 2 meters.
The process we use to shut down the engine is by turning off the fuel supply valve to starve the engine and thereby ridding fuel from the carb. To our knowledge we have never purchased fuel with Gasohol or ethanol fuel additives. Our problem is that it the unit's gas tank leaked fuel out of the bottom of the carb. Apparently, the last one to start the generator didn't turn off the fuel valve and it sat for a long period of time with fuel in the carb. ( Probably about 2 years ) We assigned a few of our volunteers to start the generator on occasion, and apparently they didn't shut the fuel off to power down.
The generator is like new. It has a total of about 16 hours on it. I cleaned the original Champion RJ-19 LM spark plug emptied the tank, and changed the oil to date and it wants to start on the first pull but won't after the first attempt. Once it's sat for a few minutes and tried again it almost starts on the first pull again but dies. It used to start effortlessly on the 2nd or 3rd pull and ran fine. I am hesitant to remove the carb, but may have to give it a good cleaning.
What would you suppose happened, and in your opinion is it appropriate to power down the unit by starving the unit of fuel to keep fuel out of the carb ?
AnswerGary
IMOP You should shut down the generator with the off switch then shut off the fuel leaving some fuel in the bowl.You say that this unit very rarely starts,that is a problem because fuel gets stale and evaporates,if you ever smelled bad fuel it has a bad odor.Sound lie you need a carb over haul as the carb is probably all gummed up.When the fuel leaked out of the bottom of the carb is probably the gaskets are all dried up.Put in fuel stabilizer in the fuel for this and try to start this unit up at least once every 2 months or shorter.sounds like when you need this generator it wont be there when the power goes out because of lack of maint.
