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| vtsteam:
That's a fine genset, Andrew. Very envious! :beer: |
| awemawson:
It ain't arrived yet Steve - it may be a clunker :bugeye: But I sincerely hope not :scratch: But it's exactly what I was looking for (if it works). I have a friend who went 'off grid' for a couple of years and he must have brought his 'far east genny' to me at least half a dozen times for bits that had broken, stuck, fatigued or just died. Horrid design and reminiscent of your 'carb and tank built into dash board' issue ! |
| vtsteam:
Well Andrew I have to admit that I have a far east genny, but it's a Lister clone of 600 lbs of cast iron, producing 6 hp @ 600 rpm. Funny note apropos this thread, the nigh beforeThanksgiving (Nov 28) we got 12" of snow -- heavy wet stuff that stuck to trees. And the ground was still soft from rain and not frozen. So it ripped out trees by the root balls along the roads and we had 4 power outtages in a row as stuff came down on the wires throughout the area. I have got my Lister type gen all ready except for a starter motor and a line to the house transfer switch. It is still hand cranked, but that's really difficult to manage with 30 weight oil and low temps. So I went to my other modern 3600 RPM racketmaker gasoline generator (Generac brand) which was already hooked to the transfer switch, under a little roof next to the house. Gave it 3 pulls and the starter cord broke and I fell over backwards into the snow cursing it worse than the snow-blower with the bad tank. Of course it was dark outside, and I wasn't about to try to fix a recoil starter under those conditions by flashlight (electric torch) -- I would certainly drop nuts, dogs, springs, whatever into the snow. Also couldn't do it inside since the lights were out, of course! So I just gave up. We lit candles, read, and went to bed early. Not such a bad thing. I do think however that there should be a reverse-Nobel prize. And it should be given to the inventor of the recoil starter. What was wrong with the prior system of a pulley with a notch in it that you wrapped a rope around? Any rope. Rope broke, so what? Repairing a recoil starter is one of the jobs I least look forward to....... and in the dark outside in winter during an emergency (sort of)? |
| awemawson:
I have a 4kW Briggs and Stratton (spell check wants to substitute CASTRATION for stratton :lol:) engined generator that I use as standby at the moment, and it's recoil starter only recoils when the engine is running. So if it doesn't start first pull you are knackered. It is possible to ease it back a tiny bit at a time by sticking fingers into it, but not easy. |
| vtsteam:
I fixed the recoil yesterday. Took t off the motor. It was all plastic, and at first I couldn't figure out how to get it apart, with no obvious screws or fasteners. Then I realized the front metal badge was only a peel off label. But underneath, still no bolts or screws. Just a black plastic circle with a white nylon square shaft protruding though it. Finlly guessing the nylon might be a sort of peg or wedge, I threw cautions to the winds and put pliers on it squeezed and pulled. Sure enough, it was a double wedge locking device, and the squeeze action compressed the barbed legs and it came out. I didn't have enough dacron braided line to replace the starter rope (and it is thin stuff on these recoil starters), I decided to just shorten it 6". To do this you have to thread it through the guide ferrule first before the rubber handle, and tie a stopper knot. Very difficult as the cord had to make a right angle turn in the rubber handle, and it wanted to fray instead of slide around the bend. I heated the rope end up with a match to try to keep it whipped together. Finally getting that done with the help of tweezers, needle nose pliers, and foul language, I tied the knot and pulled it tight in the handle. Ready to reassemble. Parts laid out on the table. There were two dogs and springs, but no shafts for the dogs. They just fit in recesses in the plastic and pivoted in that. I tried putting it back together, but it wouldn't all fit, because the spring wouldn't hook onto the proper mating part. The end had a flattened loop that was supposed to mate with a plastic lip. I re-bent the loop to make it easier, and managed to stuff the whole clam back into its shell. But the spring was no longer wound so the recoil wouldn't work. I'd hoped that there was some kind of retainer on the bulk of the spring, keeping tension in. Because I'd never heard it go "Sproing" when I took it apart. But no such luck. It was unwound fully. So I realized I was going to have to manually wind the whole thing before putting the recoil mechanism back in its cage. And to do that, I realized I'd have to remove the rubber handle from the cord again, wind the spring, wind the cord on the pulley, insert the unit in the cage, and then somehow fish the line out of the ferrule, and reinstall the rubber handle. So 20 minutes later, mainly due to the restringing operations, I had it back together, had reinstalled the plastic wedge (which was harder than removing it) and was pulling on the cord to test the spring action, when one of the dogs popped out and landed on the floor. I apparently hadn't exactly lined everything up when reinstalling the wedge, and the dog had space to come loose. Which was why the wedge was so hard to press in place. Finally, I managed to get the whole infernal machine (with label) back together again, and glumly returned to the generator to bolt it in place. I of course dropped one of the attachment bolts into the snow. Right next to the piece of plastic I put down to catch anything I dropped. I was able to dig it out in a few minutes with raw fingers, and got the starter back on the machine. To give it a test, I flipped the choke on, opened the tank valve, switched the generator to run, and gave it a pull. It started instantly. Which so surprised me that I slipped backwards into the snow again. Or perhaps I just pulled too hard while off balance. Of course the power had long since been restored...... :lol: |
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