Harbor Freight 800W generator...

[pylek]

Hello Gentlemen, I am going to regret asking this, but...

I have found a little toy at Harbor Freight. It is item number 66619-0VGA, Chicago Electric 2hp 2-stroke 800/900W brushless generator. I know it is a chinese unit. The 2-stroke engine doesn't faze me, but I have gotten the impression from this forum that chinese generator heads are lousy. I searched the old and new forums and had trouble finding anything specific.

For many reasons, none of which include logic or reason, I want this generator. I have a 20% discount and can get this unit for a shade over $100 at my local Harbor Freight. What kind of problems should I be looking for, or am in store for...

Thanks for your help, I very much value your opinions.

Seth K. Pyle

[bobodu]

Just don't expect to run much more than a couple of light bulbs. My calculator tells me than 800w (if you're lucky...) is roughly 6.5 amps.

[pylek]

That's no problem. I checked my junk at home, my Black&Decker 4" angle grinder is 500W, my Milwaukee 1/2" 2spd drill is 600W. I figured it up when I first saw this unit, around 6.3 amps capacity running. A drill and a drop light in the junkyard...

Seth K. Pyle

[norm]

An electric motor requires approx. 3X the rated wattage for startup.

[learning]

wildfire motors on ebay. you can get a 1000/1200w one delivered for around a hundred as well.... I know this because I had a moment of insanity myself and purchased one.

[pylek]

OK guys, time for you to make fun of me. I went ahead and bought this little generator. I like it. I took it apart to replace the crappy rubber fuel line with better 1/4" ID fuel line and an inline filter. I also poured a little 2 cycle oil into the plug hole to lubricate the cylinder for start up. I filled the tank with a 40:1 mixture of 93octane fuel purchased that morning and 2cycle oil. Long story short, this engine doesn't run very well. It is missing, for lack of a better word. It started up pretty quickly, after 2 pulls. But, it ran raggedy, meaning I could hear it missing, and it ran with a staccato sound. Playing with the choke makes no difference until the blade is fully closed. Then it dies. I ran it like this for around 25 minutes. The generator makes voltage. Last night it was around 120-124VAC. I am having trouble with the frequency. For the house, I put my meter red lead on the hot line, and the black lead to the neutral, usually get around 60Hz. On this little generator, I was getting around 1189HZ?!?!!? I don't think this is correct, because the engine doesn't sound like it is overspeeding. Plugging a 100W light into the receptacle, and you can see the pulsations of the engine in the light. Turning off the petcock, the engine will run unloaded for around 20-30 seconds before the float bowl empties.

I took it to work and played with it on break. More of the same. So, I took the carb off and apart. The carb looked clean inside, I blew through everything I could with brake cleaner. The reed valves looked flat. I reassembled it, and more of the same. The engine runs with a staccato sound. Spraying a little brake cleaner into the carb was counter productive, I couldn't tell if it helped. I removed the factory Bonor F5TC plug. It didn't look too hateful, brownish tan on most of electrode and insulator, with a little burnt oil look on the back of the electrode and first thread of the body.

Today, I put a fresh NGK BP5ES plug in it. I removed the carb again. I noticed fuel seepage from behind the reed valve plate. I cleaned all that and the gasket with brake cleaner, and reassembled with a thin skim of Hylomar on both sides of the gasket. I disassembled the carb again, removing the main jet at the side bottom of the main well casting. I removed some kind of jet from the top left side of the carb. This had a very tiny orifice in the bottom, and three larger holes radially on the body of the long part of it. THe well this jet sits in is connectd to a bleed in the choke side throat of the carb and to the main well/emulsion tube. I couldn't get the emulsion tube out, so I left it there. I used the wire from a bread tie, and poked through EVERY orifice I could find. I followed this up with carb cleaner, getting cleaner out of every hole/orifice I sprayed into, even the 3 little orifices on the side of the carb throat on the throttle side, progressively uncovered by the throttle blade. These orifices, I think, are connected to the jet I mentioned earlier. I finished with compressed air. I noticed the idle screw was nowhere near touching the throttle lever, but I will worry about that as I go.

After reassembling, the engine ran a little better, though voltage was down to 115-118VAC. The engine ran a little smoother, but still had some of a staccato sound. Again, choking it didn't help. For giggles, I would choke it with my hand right up to the point of stalling, then let it rev up. After doing this a few times, it sounded a little better. I sprayed carb cleaner around the carb mounting, and thought I heard a skip. So, I pulled the carb again and put a thin skim of Hylomar on both sides of the carb mounting gasket. Again, the engine seemed to run a little better, but still somewhat raggedy. There is a screw on the side of the generator that adjusts the tension on the governor spring. Adjusting this screw 1/2 turn in either direction adjusted voltage some, and I could hear the engine speed up or slow down, but was still raggedy. According to my vibra-tach, the engine is running in the neighborhood of 3600rpm.

I had read in a post on the old forum that some of the larger clone generators were calibrated excessively lean, and would run rough. Solution was to open the main jet ever so slightly. Does this apply to my little generator?

I understand you guys will make fun of me for this, and I can accept that. Just please help me. I don't want to declare defeat. I still like this little toy, and don't think it is defective, just not quite right.

I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks!

Seth K. Pyle.

[daniel]

My suggestion is to take it back & get a refund pronto. Most all their electric motors are useless ( I know!), and this generator seems no different. You may ruin any appliance you operate off it. Take it back & put it out of your mind.

[skywatcher]

Hi Seth

I bought a unit that sounds simular to yours from Princess Auto. It's rated for 800 watts with 880 watt surge. Being a governed two cycle it misses at governed speed no load. Put a 600 watt resistance load (two painters lamps) and it smoothes right out and purrs. I get a 2 Hz variation due to governor action when load is applied but it soon settles down to a steady 59 Hz at this load. A 5" angle grinder will pull the engine down on start up but once recovered I can sharpen blades with the gen-set holding a steady 3,590 RPM buzz. Now whether I just got a good one or you got a bad one I don't know. One thing I did notice however was the foam air filter was completely dry so needless to say it got an application of foam air filter oil before the first run. Maybe check the engine governed RPM then put a 60% to 75% resistance load on the unit and recheck. Just something to think about. All the best,

Sky Watcher

[pylek]

Thanks, skywatcher. I forgot to mention, I plugged in a duplex extension cord, with my meter in one receptacle and a 500W halogen light in the other. The generator took the load, I heard the engine level out, ran a bit better, but still had the uneven staccato note. Voltage increased from 115-118VAC to 120-122VAC with the light plugged in. I unplugged the light, the engine slowed some, ran more raggedy.

Seth K. Pyle

[norm]

Doesn't sound like a carb prob. If it were lean choking would help. I have seen several of those cheapy new 2 cycles with a .050"-060" coil gap that sounded about like that.