Let's All Point and Laugh at the OP

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Your Friday opportunity to have some fun at my expense
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The story starts with a Champion 5,000 watt generator that I've had for a while. I'm in the habit of running it for 20-30 minutes every month or so to prevent fuel system problems. A couple of weekends ago I went to start it up and it ran for 4-5 seconds and died. Hmmmmm. Wouldn't start up again.

Suspecting a gunked up carb, I put some seafoam in the tank and gave it a quick burst of starter fluid through the air intake. It started up alright, and promptly puked gasoline everywhere then started shooting flames out of the air intake. Ooooops. I will say that the gazelle-like speed and grace with which I dashed for a fire extinguisher and put the flames out was pretty [censored] impressive.

(At this point I will also say well done to Champion as the flames were right next to the carb / main fuel line / gas tank, and nothing really bad happened).

With the carb now a mess of melted plastic parts and full of fire extinguisher powder, and the air intake just a melted mess, I had to order new parts. They arrived, I put everything back together, and tried to start it. Once again, it puked gas everywhere. No fire though so yay! Progress.

This time I was a lot more thorough in my inspection, and noted that the brand new carb was dry as a bone on the exterior. The air intake however was soaked in gas. Hmmmmmm. I removed the plug and gently turned the engine over using the starter rope. With the air intake cover open, I could now see that the gas was pouring out of the breather tube. [censored]. Im not Ace Ventura Engine Mechanic, but I know that the engine shouldn't be spewing up gas through its breather tube.

Opened up the oil fill and I was greeted by gas pouring out of the crankcase. Oh boy. Had a brainwave (about the only one in this whole sorry story) and checked the fuel shutoff valve by pulling the fuel line from it. Yup. It had failed, and even in the "Off" position it was letting gas pour through. Sigh.

Drained the fuel tank and replaced the shutoff valve with a spare. Checked for function. Drained the crankcase and filled it with fresh oil. Checked the plug which was of course a fouled mess, and replaced that too.

Fuel: check. Air: check. Spark: check. Oil: check.

It was at this point that I hoped, as you might be doing, for a happy ending to this story. Turned the fuel on, turned the ignition on, set the choke, pulled the starter rope and...

...the ^&!@ing rope snapped in half.

Having let loose a stream of profanity that would make a Drill Instructor blush, I took the recoil starter assembly off. Replaced the rope, tried to wind tension into the spring, and was greeted with the click click click of doom. Fabulous. Disassembled the pulley and was greeted by the recoil spring unwinding itself all over the floor. If you've ever tried to rewind one, you'll know how much fun the next half hour of my life was.

I finally got the [censored] thing working again, reassembled the pulley, went to wind tension onto the spring, and yup, you guessed it, click click click. Somewhere in the reassembly process the spring had unhooked itself from the pulley.

You know what happened next, right? If you guessed "as you hooked it back up to the pulley it unwound itself again from the other end" then go to the top of the class. No profanity this time, just a sigh of resignation as I set to rewinding the spring. Again.

The story does end well as, having wrestled the spring into submission one last time, I was able to keep tension on it while I wound the new rope onto the pulley. Reattached the assembly to the generator, and it started first pull.

For all of the abuse, especially an engine drowned in gasoline, it merely smoked like a stoner at Reggaefest for 2-3 minutes and then began to purr like a kitten. Let it run for a while and not so much as a hiccup. Perfect 220v output. Ahhhhhhhh. The sweet smell of success.

Go ahead, give me your worst about all the signs that I missed along the way. You can't possibly give me any more [censored] than I've given myself
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Been there...done that when nothing and I mean nothing would go together, run, lost the part, wrong trans filter(store closed)...you get my drift. I would suggest a stainless steel ball valve to shut off the fuel to prevent BP rising in the future.
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Hahaha,I had Kawasaki minitrail 49cc a few decade back .i had forgotten the gas valve open and didn't pay attention to it .it didn't want to start .the mechanic tell me , it's probably in thevalve train. I'm like what?.I told him just change the oil and spark plug .that fixed the issue . He then told me that a lot of gas had ended up In the oil pan
Don't we love basic stuff like this happening.yep I was like ,dam I m stupid.hahaha
 
If you think a stoner at Reggae fest smokes, you've never been to Hippy Hill on 4/20, AT 4:20pm.

You'd get high from 20 blocks away.

Also, thank you for the laugh!
 
TL;DR, but LOLOLOLOL anyway
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Ok, did read now. I would think that maybe I wasn't supposed to have OPE if I were you.
 
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You have to love it when a simple issue results in all sorts of what would have been unnecessary work.
This is a mistake you'll never make again with any small engine.
 
Originally Posted By: oldhp
Been there...done that when nothing and I mean nothing would go together, run, lost the part, wrong trans filter(store closed)...you get my drift. I would suggest a stainless steel ball valve to shut off the fuel to prevent BP rising in the future.
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It's remarkable how parts "know" what time the local stores close and plan their failures for 10 minutes before closing time when the store is a 12 minute drive away. And yes, a ball valve is in its very near term future. The non-serviceable flimsy petcocks are a disaster waiting to happen on a piece of equipment that by definition will only be needed in an emergency
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Believe me. I'm laughing with you. I generally screw up the first attempt. Sometimes I'm still messing up, but not as badly, after several tries. I take comfort in the fact I'm not alone
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Originally Posted By: Speedie95


Having let loose a stream of profanity that would make a Drill Instructor blush, I took the recoil starter assembly off. Replaced the rope, tried to wind tension into the spring, and was greeted with the click click click of doom. Fabulous. Disassembled the pulley and was greeted by the recoil spring unwinding itself all over the floor. If you've ever tried to rewind one, you'll know how much fun the next half hour of my life was.


You know what happened next, right?



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Been there....done that.....!"#$%&/()=?*
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Quote:
You know what happened next, right?


Here I usually go on a cold beer or 2,3,4 (usually with my father)....and after that things go as planned in first attempt
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A marine mechanic was starting up my Mercruiser for the first time this spring. I outside the boat and was watching for exhaust water coming out of the prop hub and the exhaust bellows.

Then I saw water (I thought) coming out of the bilge drain which would mean there was some kind of leak in the engine and it was draining into the bilge.

Told the mechanic and he quickly looked at the engine and bilge and realized he had stepped on the electric fuel pump and popped off a gas hose. The electric fuel pump was pumping gas into the bilge and it was draining out the bilge drain hole.

Yikes, things could have gone bad quickly had a spark occurred.
 
The most important thing is that you didn't give up.
Patience is its own reward in situations like these.
I'd even say that it built character in your case.
Keep on truckin, op.
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Originally Posted By: andyd
Believe me. I'm laughing with you. I generally screw up the first attempt. Sometimes I'm still messing up, but not as badly, after several tries. I take comfort in the fact I'm not alone
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It's ok, I laughed at myself plenty during the whole process, and my wife gleefully filled in the gaps when I stopped
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In all seriousness though I learned more from this process than I ever have in years of routine maintenance. For instance next time I'll start at the gas tank and work my way slowly through the system until I find the problem rather than jumping to conclusions and starter fluid. I now know how to change the carb out and have a spare on hand in case one fails at a bad time. I know that flimsy petcocks are not to be trusted and should have a secondary such as as an inline ball valve. I've never seen the insides of a recoil starter, but now I can rewind the spring and replace the cord on one (eventually). Etc etc.

I try to learn more from my failures than my successes, and lord knows there was plenty of learning fodder here!
 
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