Honda EM5000SX won't stay running!

[Bstout]

Ouch...Expensive little buggers to say the least.

Yep! I noticed that too!

I took the switch out this morning and sat down with an ohmmeter to attempt to map it out. During the process I learned that the switch was alright or at least according to the continuity tester. It followed the shop manual perfectly. There's one set of contacts that short the ignition to ground for the OFF position. There is also a separate set of switch contacts that operate the fuel cut off solenoid. Finally a third set of contacts in the switch to operate the electric start solenoid (momentary switch).

I looked carefully at the molex connector that goes to the switch and it had a little bit of green crud on it. Nothing serious in appearance but it must have been enough to interrupt the current flow for both the ignition disable and the fuel cut off solenoid. I used a squirt of DeoxIT D5 and everything started working again. I haven't been able to make it fail since. I'm not one to rush out and send up rockets until a little time has past first but, I'm pretty sure this was the issue.

I really appreciate the help from you guys. You sure saved me a lot of time and frustration by pointing me in the right direction.

Thank you!

Bob

[KE4AVB]

When it comes to intermittent problems only time will tell if you truly fixed the problem. I hate these as they are the most timing to fix too. I had three mower is this so far that bad Packard connectors and the customers had changed out expensive items trying to fix the problems themselves when it was only a bad contact.

It does sound like you may found at least one of the culprits of your problem and hopefully it is the only one.

[Bstout]

I agree when it comes to intermittent issues, only time will tell. This was pretty steady though at this point. I couldn't shut the engine off at all with the ignition switch. The last few times I ran it yesterday I had to close the petcock and let it run out of gas in order to stop the engine. The same thing this morning.

Immediately after cleaning the molex connector on the ignition switch, I could shut the engine off every time with the ignition switch. I can't make it act up again so I have a good feeling about that. I'll be running it every day for awhile just to see if I can get it to fail. Of course the acid test will be when I really need the generator.

One thing I forgot to check after the fix, see if I can get the engine to stop by pulling the choke out. I would think I should be able to flood it out, I'm going outside now to try this.

[Bstout]

Nope! I can't kill the engine using the choke!

With the choke on full and the generator on auto the engine will start to die then surge up in rpm and go into a pumping low rpm to high rpm and just keep surging but not die. If I give it full choke at high rpm (auto/off switch in the off position) it just causes the engine to spit and sputter but not lose rpm.

Does anyone know if that's "normal" for this generator? I'm just trying to satisfy my curiosity. All of my other engines will kill right now at full choke but they don't have all the solenoids and other do-dads like this generator.

[KE4AVB]

Can't answer that one. People in my area are too tight to buy a good generator and never seen a Honda generator in person here at my shop.

[bgsengine]

Nope! I can't kill the engine using the choke!

With the choke on full and the generator on auto the engine will start to die then surge up in rpm and go into a pumping low rpm to high rpm and just keep surging but not die. If I give it full choke at high rpm (auto/off switch in the off position) it just causes the engine to spit and sputter but not lose rpm.

Does anyone know if that's "normal" for this generator? I'm just trying to satisfy my curiosity. All of my other engines will kill right now at full choke but they don't have all the solenoids and other do-dads like this generator.

when you choke it you're adding more fuel - the surging at fast idle (top no load) or idle, the excess fuel loads up the engine and fails to burn , engine loses power, throttle valve opens, giving more air , and engine speeds up .. when you have it at full high idle the spit and sputter is because it is too rich - they don't always quit in cases like that due to the emissions carburetors being naturally rather lean to begin with

I'd say it is fairly normal if the fuel shutoff is not active (cutting off fuel) and you still have ignition going on, it'll keep on running - not optimally but it'll run unless you were able to completely close off air flow (Block the air intake)

[Bstout]

bgsengine, that is what I was hoping for. It's been running better than ever so far. I'll run it some more today under load or the same circumstance as I plan on using it for to make sure it's holding up. I've been studying the service manual and I pick up little tidbits here and there. It's hard to find explanations that are put in plain language like you did bgsengine, allowing me to more clearly see the big picture.

Thank you.

Bob

[Bstout]

I ran my generator hard over the weekend. I took it from no load to nearly full load several times. I did everything I could think of to make it fail. It never skipped a beat and ran perfect. I changed the oil (Castrol 5W-30W) so I'm good to go for the winter.

I was taught to shut the petcock off while the engine is still running to run the float bowl dry during storage. I don't always do this, especially if I know I'll be using the generator within the next week or so. Sometimes that doesn't happen and I end up going a couple of months with gas in the float bowl. I haven't seen any short comings from this though.

I'm wondering what you guys think about running the float bowl dry for storage periods? How often do you run your generator if it hasn't been used on a regular basis?

[bgsengine]

I'm wondering what you guys think about running the float bowl dry for storage periods? How often do you run your generator if it hasn't been used on a regular basis?

Use a trusted high quality fuel stabilizer designed for ethanol blended fuels - Briggs * Stratton advanced treatment, B3C's Ethanol Shield, Star Tron, and *current label* Sta-Bil (check their website) - (I still see a lot of hardware stores carrying the old label "red" stuff by now that stuff is way over 2 years old)

Get some of it - especially if you have some that is pre-measured for a 5 (or 2.5) Gallon gas can - add a dose to your gas can BEFORE every fill up, you have fuel that you can put in your generator (and store in an EPA compliant gas can) for up to 2 years no need to even WORRY about running carb dry

- it actually does not do any good to run carb dry because you are still gonna have fuel residue in bottom of bowl that is going to plug the jets eventually as it breaks down and evaporates to green scale.. you're technically better off topping off your generator gas tank to the tippy top and keeping carb bowl full - and without fuel stabilizer, pull it out and fire it up for 10 mins or so every 6 months.

[KE4AVB]

Also running it every so often under a load will help keep the alternator's rotor magnetized as these can lose it over long storage times. I had to re-energize (re-magnetize) several back in the Spring this year.