Hi, I'm a new member and this is my first post. I am entering day three with no power from Hurricane Michael. I have an older Devilbiss GT5250 generator that was purchased primarily to run my well pump when the power is out. It has rarely been used, and really never ran right from the time it was new. I was finally able to get the engine to run pretty well earlier this year and figured I was all set. Now that I need it, it won't run the well pump.
If I measure the output voltage on the 120v plugs I get about 120 on one and 112 on the other. I am able to run my refrigerator, freezer and a couple of lights and the voltage drops to about 110, However, on the 220v outlet I get the same readings on each leg - 120 and 112 with no load. If I plug the pump in and turn it on the voltage drops to zero and then slowly recovers to the original readings over 15 to 20 seconds. The engine also sounds like it is under load. When I try the pump it is the only thing plugged into the generator.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. It looks like we have at least two more days without power, so getting some water into the house is becoming urgent.

Thanks!

 

What is the voltage hot to hot on the 240v receptacle?

 

Also it doesn't seem to recover from loading on the 120 either. I plugged my coffee maker into it for the first time this morning and the voltage dropped to about 95.

This just occurred to me - is it possible the governor isn't opening the throttle enough to compensate for the sudden surge?

 

Are you noticing the rpm's of the engine dropping? Something like that should be detectable by ear.

Do you have a electrical multi-meter that can read the frequency of AC voltage? Is so that will tell you very quickly if there is an rpm/governor issue.

 

Fortunately our power is back on now so I have some time to fix the generator or replace. The RPMs do drop when it is loaded. I don't have a hz meter, but I'm not sure that matters at this point, as I'm pretty sure that the governor should be at least trying to keep the rpm steady. I watched the governor while I added loads to the generator and it never moved from the position it was in when it was unloaded. The rpm drops and the voltage output just continues to drop as the load is increased. It actually dropped to 85 volts before I stopped loading it with no change in the governor or throttle linkage. When I shut the engine off the governor pulls the throttle to wide open, so it isn't stuck, it just doesn't respond to the rpm drop.

 

Can you manually rev the carburetor while this is happening or is it already at full throttle?

 

There is plenty of throttle left. I'd say it's at no more than 1/4 open, and I can open further by hand. I found the Tecumseh governor and carb manual on Scribd. There appears to be a static adjustment that may be a starting point. I bought this unit new in maybe 2000 and aside from disassembling the carb and cleaning it and rebuilding with a factory kit (turned out ethanol destroyed everything in it), everything is exactly the way it left the factory.