Scored a Small Generator for Cheap.

S

spasm3

Joined
May 30, 2010
Messages
18,560
Location
North Carolina
A fellow at work had a Harbor Freight predator 4000 generator, let it set 2 years, won't start. He bought a new larger generator and sold me this one for $100.

It looks like it only has 20hrs on it. Air filter was pristine clean. Fuel tank did not look rusted inside. I drained the tank, about a gallon of years old fuel. Smelled like kerosene. I drained the oil and removed the carb. I put 1 gallon of e-15 ( to absorb any water) in it with a couple of ounces of berryman b-12 and turned the genset on all sides to coat the tank sides and top. Let it sit an hour while i went through the carb.

Drained the e-15/berryman mix , put E-0 gas in the tank, filled it with some High Performance Lubricants premium plus 0w-40.

Runs great!

I'm going to get a wheel kit for it, and it will be my sons generator.

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After taking apart the carburetor on mine a couple times I now use TruFuel, VP Racing or other canned ethanol free version (no pure gas around me). I will put just enough to start and run generator to let it warm up and put a load on it and then run out of gas. At least what was through there last was good.

In season OPE gets regular fuel with Stabil Marine, maybe some Mechanic in bottle and/or Berryman’s. End of season emptied out, run dry, Canned fuel version, run dry.

Nice deal on that HF 4000.
 
Great work & should serve your son well. I know you already know to put in Berryman fuel stabilizer in every fill.
 
That carb bowl was a mess even with sitting around. Thes things need to run occasionally and definitely get the big bottle of Stabil. The HPL is great, but maybe just a little over the top.
 
spasm3 said:
A fellow at work had a Harbor Freight predator 4000 generator, let it set 2 years, won't start. He bought a new larger generator and sold me this one for $100.

It looks like it only has 20hrs on it. Air filter was pristine clean. Fuel tank did not look rusted inside. I drained the tank, about a gallon of years old fuel. Smelled like kerosene. I drained the oil and removed the carb. I put 1 gallon of e-15 ( to absorb any water) in it with a couple of ounces of berryman b-12 and turned the genset on all sides to coat the tank sides and top. Let it sit an hour while i went through the carb.

Drained the e-15/berryman mix , put E-0 gas in the tank, filled it with some High Performance Lubricants premium plus 0w-40.

Runs great!

I'm going to get a wheel kit for it, and it will be my sons generator.

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Were the carb jets clogged? How long did you spend on cleaning it?
 
spasm3 said:
Carb was a gummy mess. Carb took about 10 minutes to clean. Took more time to drain and clean the tank.
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With these small engines, it’s almost always the carb. The first one you do takes an hour. The rest take 10 minutes. There is very little chance of missasembly and they are all very similar with a few exceptions. Watch James Condon on YouTube.
 
Nice score! Float bowl looked like my next door neighbor's Champion after it had sat for at least a year. He wondered why it wouldn't start :rolleyes:. Float moved fine, fuel needle was still good, but main jet was clogged. Ran a cleaning wire through it, drained the tank, filled with E0 and half a bottle of Ethanol Shield. Started on second pull and let it eat. Told him that I'd be happy to service it for storage anytime he wanted for a six-pack of my choosing 😁.
 
Nice! I had a Predator 4000, worked like a champ. I bought a magnetic dipstick for it, and it was a little eye opening that there would be a little film on it at each oil change. Ditto on replacing the Torch plug with an NGK. Surprisingly, mine ran for a quite a while before I discovered that the plug insulator had been cracked, apparently since day 1!
 
Nice score! I have a 20+ year old champion that came back around with one of the $15 ebay carbs. I just keep a spare one of those around now in case of emergency. Haven't had any problems with it since I've been using non-ethanol and run it out after each use.
 
I have 4 prices of OPE, that I'm responsible for. I use locally sourced E-10 unleaded gas in all of them. My generator is about 13 years old, Harbor freight 3200-4000 watt model. I started it up every 2-3 months. The gas I use in all my stuff has a mix of Auto store brand carb cleaner, and MMO in the can. All my stuff starts with 2-3 pulls on the cord, and runs perfect. No surging or hunting at idle. I'be been doing this for at least 20 years. My Genny still has the original spark plug in it, although I think I changed the mower plugs once or twice. Mostly from age. My newest mower is 15 years old. Every now and then, I give each piece a splash of carb cleaner during the mowing season. I run the mowers dry at the end of mowing season, and keep some gas in the Genny year round. Never had to take anything apart yet. I mostly use spray carb cleaner, to help get my snow blower started. After it starts it starts on its own afterwards.,,,
 
A tangential generator story.

I had a bachelor uncle who would power his house with a 1 kilowatt generator during power outages. He was not real smart, and he was "morbidly thrifty". A one kilowatt generator was barely enough to power his furnace to heat the home in a power outage. If you turned on any other electric loads, it would trip out. My widowed mother, who suffered dementia, lived with him. He told her to not turn on any lights or appliances, but it would go in one ear and out the other for her.

They suffered a tremendous ice storm and power was to be out for over a week. The uncle called me and wanted me to bring my mother to my house until utility power was restored, which I did.

When utility power was restored, I brought my mother back to her home.

The uncle told me that his generator totally failed, and he had to buy a new one. A three kilowatt generator. He could have used a six kilowatt generator for his furnace, well pump, refrigerator, lighting, etc. But he bought a three kw generator.

I asked, "Why did you buy a 3 kilowatt generator?" His answer: "Because the store was sold out on 1 kilowatt generators" :censored:
 
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