I have a Powermate 5000 (watt) generator with a B&S Vangaurd 9 Hp engine on it. In this last power outage, I fired it up only to find it would only run with the choke just over 1/2 on. Turn off the choke and the engine quit like the ign. switch was turned off. So I used it that way for a couple of days until grid power came back on. Went looking and a new carburetor was $130. Ugh. So I took off the carburetor and pulled it down; found the pilot jet (the low speed 'helper' jet) clogged and cleaned it out with a piece of twist- tie wire with the paper removed. Tried it and it was a bit better, and ran fantastic on 1/2 choke, and now would run on no choke but it was doing that nasty, violent surge of a lean running engine. Pulled it apart again and went after it with a set of 60 to 80 drills. All the passages were dirty and coated with varnish but I think the real 'deal-killer' was the main jet; it started with an 0.032 drill being a press- fit but as I tried each larger size, another thousandth of an inch or two, I could get them to go through the jet if I did a little pushing and twisting, just holding the bit in my fingers. There was no way that this was enough force to cut brass but it was cutting something, and I believe that was varnish. Anyway, the last drill that went through that way was 0.0365", which is considerably larger than 0.032". Cleaned everything up, reassembled and Viola! it runs better than it ever did with no choke at all. Also finally made a 230 volt whip for it but have not tried that yet. I had been using two 115 Volt whips, plugged into each leg on the generator and directly to a breaker in the breaker box in the garage. That worked fine but took a while to set up and I had to leave the breaker box open. This way will be neater, faster and overall a nicer setup. Now as long as the engine does not throw a rod, all should be well regarding generators at my house for a while. Brian
Try shutting the gas valve off when you are done with use and let it run till it dies. That will help prevent varnish buildup in the carb. If there is no shut off valve just bend the fuel line and tie it of with light string. I do that with all of my 4 stroke machines when I know they are not going to be in use for months ie; generator, snow blower, lawn mower.... Once the fuel is on makes its way back through the carb they run with no problem even with old gas. I just top them off with new gas and move on.
Yep, it has an in-line shut off valve, and yes, I always close the valve and run it dry. I never stop the machine with the ignition kill switch, the 'On / Off' switch. I do this will all the machines that have shut off valves including snow blower and log splitter that will not be used for months at a time. But I bought the machine used and really do not know how it was handled before I owned it (a friend of mine bought it new, replaced it with a larger Honda generator, and I bought the old one from him about 9 years ago). There is also a mechanical bowl drain that I think I will start using; it is a Philips head taper tip screw (like any ordinary jet adjusting screw) that closes off a very small barb fitting in the bottom of the bowl. Never saw one before and really did not know what it was for before I found the parts fiche that said 'bowl drain' (kinda' gave it away.... ). Brian
