Propane generator?

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JMotuzick
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Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:22 pm
First and Last Name: Joe Motuzick
Location: Torrington Ct

Propane generator?

Post by JMotuzick »

Way off topic but hopefully someone has 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 itnoff 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!

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BigMike
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:45 pm
First and Last Name: Mike Andrews
Location: Niles,Michigan

Re: Propane generator?

Post by BigMike »

Joe,
You need “small engine mechanic” from YouTube.
That guy is in your neck of the woods and works on those for a living.

DaveKamp
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:19 am
First and Last Name: Dave Kamp
Location: LeClaire, Ia

Re: Propane generator?

Post by DaveKamp »

I know I'm a bit late on this, but same thing happened to my Dad... TWICE...

So, it's a Generac... and if you've checked around other forums, you'll find that these things happen with the G-brand.

The 'dies after removing jumper cables' is a function of usually one of two things... either it's not providing any charge to hold up the battery, or the microprocessor board has fried.

On my dad's, it was the microprocessor board AND the charging regulator the first time, the microprocessor board the second time, and the microprocessor board the third time.

Dad's is natural gas. The microprocessor controls basically everything from the fuel solenoid, starter solenoid, and ignition kill, as well as the transfer switch... and it also monitors incoming power and the exercise cycle timer.

When the microprocessor board blows, it will crank the engine mercilessly with ignition and gas valve off, until the starter pinion bendix shreds (plastic) or until the battery catches on fire or goes flat. First time, Dad got it shut down by ripping battery cable off the battery. He installed a battery switch after that.
If the microprocessor board's voltage regulator monitoring circuit is damaged, it will attempt to crank the engine even after the engine is running, and will not stop until the starter bendix shreds, or the battery goes flat. Second time it happened, Dad and Mom were not home, the engine started, but the unit did NOT see output power, it did NOT transfer, and it shredded the starter and set the battery on fire... fortunately a neighbor got a fire extinguisher to it just about the time the battery switch melted, and the loss of 12v caused the unit to lose fuel solenoid. A new microprocessor, new battery, switch, cables, starter motor, and lots of mess cleaning was nicely costly.

Third time it happened, it started on the cycle timer, the transfer switch transferred, and kept spinning the starter. Again, shredding the starter, this time, also shelling the ring gear, and he shut off the battery. Another board, starter, ring gear, and new battery.

My disclaimer- My working generators are NOT Generacs, and I wouldn't recommend them, nor would I recommend generators that use microprocessor automation for anything other than remote monitoring. I wouldn't personally have an automatic-start, or rely on a backup generator unless it was totally capable of being hand-started, and transfered to operation, with a totally dead battery... and I wouldn't own one that was stuffed full of fragile or unsubstitutable parts.
Yes, I'm a Mad Scientist... but I'm usually happy, even when things ain't goin right.

JMotuzick
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Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:22 pm
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Re: Propane generator?

Post by JMotuzick »

Dave. Thanks for the first real reply on this topic! I posted it on 3 pages.

I ended up leaving the “smart charger” on the battery for 2 days before it read fully charged.
In the past few months I have gone out every few weeks and started the generator for a test cycle. (I’m due again) it’s alaways started up and ran good for 10-15 minutes no load. We lost power for 2 hours about 3 weeks ago, I waited and when I finally started it, we had power back in minutes. Again no issues. I recently bought a smaller solar charger for battery maintenance, so far it’s doing the trick.

Back story, the genarac was here when we bought the house and had a 60 amp sub-panel. Last spring we removed the sub-panel and added a generator interlock kit. Basically it allows one to back feed the entire 200 amp panel and our whole house. It adds a bit of safety, by not allowing both breakers on at the same time. We also cut grid power going to the generator outside, I have a Suspicion that there is a built-in onboard battery maintainer. Hopefully the solar will maintain the battery sufficiently.

Things aren’t broke, I’m not going to fix them! If the solar and starting it for a test run once a month or so is all it takes, I’ll just keep doing that.

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