Home & Garden Generator Repair Question

I've not had any luck with local mechanics so I'm doing this stuff myself. My generator is as basic as it gets. A couple weeks ago I had to replace a dry-rotted short fuel line that goes from the fuel cut off valve to the carburetor. It ran well after that for around 20 minutes.

Yesterday I went to test it out again, it would start fine but after around 15 second or would bog down and die. Couldn't get it running yesterday. Today it was doing the same but I managed to get it running by manually controlling the throttle with my finger. I had to do this for a couple minutes until it would control the throttle sufficiently enough to stay running on its own. While doing this I could feel the generator trying to control the throttle but it was very sluggish to react and jerky in its control.

After applying a load to the generator I had to again control the throttle with my finger for a couple minutes to keep it running. I was able to walk away from it and go inside. The idle was all screwed up for about an hour (but voltage coming out was steady at 225-226V....much more consistent than what NORECO provides at 200-240) but now it is running like it did the first day I got it.

I suspect there is some sort of throttle controller that might be clogged up with dirt/gunk and once it hits operating temp it loosens up. I'm no mechanic though, not sure if there could be something else causing this problem. If anyone has any ideas/advice it would be appreciated.

 

Something to look in to. Thanks.

 

That is where I bought my generator. I had noticed that the throttle control seemed to be connected to some wires that ran into the bottom of the engine casing. Wasn't sure if this was a sensor for checking oil level or for the RPMs (or both). The thing is due for an oil change as well. Believe I'll remove that part and take it down to Omega and see if they can test it/clean it out.

 

I haven't been using old fuel (or letting fuel sit in the tank for long periods). It had been sitting for awhile but the tank was emptied. The carb probably does need a good cleaning (I've had the generator for around 4 years now and the carb has never been cleaned)....that's not something I would do myself as it is a bit above my mechanical know-how. Probably best I just take the entire carb off and take it to the shop to be taken completely apart and cleaned.

Thinking more about this it probably is a bunch of gunk from the nasty fuel here in the Philippines (not just old fuel). Had the same problem with the Fireblade's throttle being sticky/sluggish/hard to rev (until it warmed up) and it was because a bunch of sticky black gunk had collected on the throttle valves. That was a major PIA (and I only had to take it all apart, didn't do any of the actual cleaning). Whatever is pushing the throttle back and forth is probably having trouble pushing and pulling against that nasty gunk buildup.