governor stuck on carburetor?

[The motor guy]

I'm fixing a generator for a friend and I cleaned the carb and got it all back together. Well I fired it up and it started immediately and it just screamed up to god knows how high. I bet it hit 5000rpm before I got it to shut off. Hopefully I didn't float any valves because it sounds a little rattly now.

The governor seems a bit sticky. It's either full open or at idle speed. I can pull the choke out to keep the engine speed at a steady rpm. Does the choke have anything to do with the governor or are they unrelated? I see their is two notches at the top of the carb where the choke butterfly valve fits into a little vertical spring and the choke isn't fully open when it's at these two notches. If I remember right it's either closed are half open. The funny thing is when it's at the partially open position it runs at the correct rpm. Did me not have the chock set properly affect the rpm?

 

[The motor guy]

Also how can I make it so the governor linkage isn't so sticky?

 

[eljefino]

what make of motor is this?

 

[Donald]

The engine will run at 3600 RPM no matter the load.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Donald
The engine will run at 3600 RPM no matter the load.


Not if the governor's fubar

 

[The motor guy]

It's a generac xp8000e I didn't touch the governor. They have it designed where you have to pull the engine fan cover housing off in order to be able to pull the carb off the bolts so you can turn it to where you can unhook the linkage. I didn't really want to do that because then the springs get stretched an such causing this kind of problem. So I just cleaned it real good on the engine since it was fairly easy access. I did it before this way like 4 years ago.

 

[The motor guy]

I had to have the choke halfway in to keep it at the 3600rpm. It ran like this for about 5 minutes running real rich puffing black smoke and then it just shut off and I couldn't restart it.

 

[The motor guy]

The butterfly was about 2/3 closed at this setting, not sure if that's how they designed it. I'm not sure what it shutoff and wouldn't restart though.

 

[The motor guy]

Is the carburetor gummed up where that governor linkage is? Is that what causes it to be stiff and not move back on it's on? If I remember right every engine I've seen with a choke butterfly it was either 100 percent closed or 100 percent open so to me it sounds like the the governor being stuck is the problem, but I don't know how to free it up.

 

[mk378]

You probably fouled out the spark plug by extended running with the choke on, so now it won't start. Remove plug and clean the carbon off.

The choke doesn't have anything to do with the governor. Choke butterfly must be fully open in the run position.

You should be able to pull the throttle plate closed then have the spring pull it back open. The linkage from the throttle plate to the governor mechanism (which is usually inside the crankcase, with a shaft coming out to a lever on the outside) must be connected and properly adjusted.

 

[The motor guy]

Sounds like it wasn't my carb cleaning job then if it runs wide open with the choke off. With me manually moving the governor by hand it only goes from idle to wide open throttle. There is no in between, I have to manually move it and it stays in either position, so I'm kind of stumped.

 

[eljefino]

Throw a load you don't care about, like a hair dryer/space heater on, and report back.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Throw a load you don't care about, like a hair dryer/space heater on, and report back.


That could be interesting. Honey.. I dunno what happened to your hair dryer. It shot like a rocket down the street.

Sounds like something is wrong with the carb on this engine or a serious governor issue which could be as simple as linkage issue or internal to the engine like most governors are.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Throw a load you don't care about, like a hair dryer/space heater on, and report back.


This thing takes off like a runaway diesel engine.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Throw a load you don't care about, like a hair dryer/space heater on, and report back.


That could be interesting. Honey.. I dunno what happened to your hair dryer. It shot like a rocket down the street.

Sounds like something is wrong with the carb on this engine or a serious governor issue which could be as simple as linkage issue or internal to the engine like most governors are.


Is it common for the governor butterfly valve to become stiff from lack of use? I never took the carburetor completely off because I didn't want to mess with unhooking the governor linkage. Maybe the carb is gunked up where that valve is? Some genius made it so you have to take the fan shroud off so you can pull the carb off the bolts and unhook the linkage. Looks like that's what I'm going to have to do though.

 

[mk378]

The throttle plate needs to move freely. Like I said, you should be able to push it closed with your finger and when you let go have the spring pull it back open.

Most engines it is 3 or 4 small bolts to take the fan shroud off so I don't understand the major malfunction here.

 

[yeehaw1960]

Is the carburetor like a Honda carb? Did you take the plastic screw out that controls minimum idle before you pried the top plastic plug out to clean it? Did you screw the screw all the way in instead of where it was when before you took it apart? Should have about 1/16 inch or so threads showing on throttle side. See this all the time when folks try to "fix" their Honda mowers.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
what make of motor is this?


You mean you don't know ? There can't possibly be more than one type of small engine out there.

 

[The motor guy]

It's a 2008 407cc generac brand engine. Funny thing is I don't see many 407cc engines they're all 410cc

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: yeehaw1960
Is the carburetor like a Honda carb? Did you take the plastic screw out that controls minimum idle before you pried the top plastic plug out to clean it? Did you screw the screw all the way in instead of where it was when before you took it apart? Should have about 1/16 inch or so threads showing on throttle side. See this all the time when folks try to "fix" their Honda mowers.


The idle screw is metal and I didn't touch it. I didn't touch any of the governor linkage when I cleaned the carb. I'm going to take the carb completely off this time and clean it better. I'm hoping it sucked something up in the main jet that caused it to shutdown and not restart. It did sound a bit clattery to me. Hopefully it didn't float a valve or something when it over reved. It sounded semi ok when I held it at 3600 rpm