Home generator help!

Here we can talk about anything we want!
Post Reply
JMotuzick
Moderator
Reactions:
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:31 pm
Location: Harwinton
Name: Joe M
Contact:

Home generator help!

Post by JMotuzick »

Way off topic but hopefully someone has propane generator experience.
We had a stom come though and lost power last night. We have a whole house generator, it’s a genarac with there own engine. (Briggs vanguard clone). The last few times we’ve needed it, it seamed to be hard starting. It would crank a bunch and finally start. It has a over crank sensor preventing more then about 20 seconds of cranking. Last night it took 3 try’s before starting and once it did run, it stalled out. 4 more tries and it ran great for 2 hours. I tuned it off before bed and we got power back before I woke this morning. I’m not familiar with the propane carbs, where should I start? If it does it again could a shot of starter fluid help if it’s lost prime?

Side note, the battery that was new last August (die hard from advanced auto) was dead! 2.x volts on my fluke meter. I jumped the generator with a 1806 cub cadet I have. When the generator died I had just pulled the jumper cables off. I believe it has a solid state ignition as it’s only about 15 years old. Just to be safe I left the cables on the second time it started and hooked up a analog battery charger to replace them. As I removed the jumper cables I did notice arcing so it was still looking for power from the cub.
It’s currently off but I left a “smart charger” hooked to the battery with it disconnected from the generator. Hopefully when I get home from work it will be back to charged up, also I hope we won’t need it again soon as they are calling for more thunder storms every night this week!

Marc bezanson
Director
Reactions:
Posts: 86
Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:03 pm
Location: Salem
Contact:

Re: Home generator help!

Post by Marc bezanson »

My best advice on this. Yank generator, replace with cub cadet on a treadmill attached to a generator! :D

Post Reply