well the title says it. my boss has a Coleman Powermate Pro-Gen 5000.
Specs: 5000watts rated power, 6250watts surge power. PMO535202.01
its been sitting becuase it gave him trouble once, rebuilt the carb ran good then stopped and he just bought a new one. so i dug into it a bit today. it actually appears to be in great shape at least on the outside. pulled the carb off. blew it all out with carb cleaner. while doing this let the gas drain. it was pee yellow. nasty stuff, very tarnished. cleaned the carb bowl and everything out, put it all back together, cracked the drain on the bottom of the float to make sure it had gas flowing and it had a nice steady stream. then i pulled the plug and cleaned it all up. re-installed. now ready to start it up, shot some carb cleaner into the intake and pulled the cord. roared to life. then died. will run on carb cleaner. has good fuel flow. i guess i could go through the carb a little more in depth? idk what to think. could a new plug make that big of a difference? its got a clean carb (unless i missed something and i dont think i did) and fresh gas. only other thing i can think of is carb adjustments. and i am very unfamiliar with these small engines carbs. sorry for the long post guys, id really like some help on this because if i can get it running i can pick it up for next to nothing. im sure he just didnt wanna mess with it so he bought a new one. and id like to try and avoid spending lots of money here. but a new carb isnt out of the question if itll run.

thanks guys,
Scott

 

dude just get a new sparkplug.

 

spark plug looks brand new after cleaning and the fact that it runs on carb cleaner makes me think my problems might be elsewhere. and at 5:30 when i got done cleanin the carb theres no place in my little town to get one.

 

some starting points:
new spark plug
make sure jets are not clogged
make sure floats not stuck open or closed

will it run if choke stays on?
will it start back up after it dies?

 

When you get it running, make sure it produces good voltage. When gens.
set up a long time the brushes often go bad.

 

floats fine, jets appear to be clear, doesnt matter choke on or off itll still start with carb cleaner just wont stay running and yes it will start back up after it dies.

 

hey thanks for the tip Tumba!!!

 

On the side draft carbs. Or I should say on some of them. there is a spay bar
that runs through he center of the venturie. It sounds like that tube has some
trash in it. With the butterfly open is there a tube running horizontaly
through it? If so that is probably where the problem is. The needle and seat
sound fine if you have gas running through the bowl. So tha only leaves the
Jet, or spraybar. Probably needs to soak in cleaner for a while. Be sure to
remove all the rubber seales and gaskets befor soaking.

 

It's the fuel shut off solenoid. I used to work for e repair shop when I was a teenager and we had generators come in every day with this same exact problem. Something is keeping the fuel shutoff solenoid from opening. What brand engine does it have? Somewhere around the carb will be a solenoid that should have one wire coming out of it. Unplug this wire and connect it to a positive 12 volt source then try to start the engine. If it starts then start doing electrical troubleshooting to see what is keeping voltage from getting to it.

There is a fuel shutoff solenoind on most small engine to keep them from flooding out during transportation and also to aid in killing the engine when the key or switch is turned off.

If it runs on carb cleaner then the plugs are ok and they are sparking just be carefull because carb cleaner can break the crown on the piston then you will have to rebuild the engine.

 

well pulled it this morning and went up town to let someone with some real small engines expirience look into it. says needle was stuck. i guess i didnt look deep enough into it. a rebuild kit for this thing was freakin 120 bucks!!! screw that. we ordered a new needle and gasket set.
its a briggs and stratton engine btw. they are gonna put the needle in and do a full clean on it before i get it back so all i gotta do is put it back on. easier for me and the boss since i wont have to take time away from work for things that actually need to be done. and the spray bar seems to be clean. itll get a good thorough cleaning before it goes back on though. thanks for the help guys.

 

Wow, what are the odds... I was actually going to post my little fiasco with a Tecumseh 8 hp engine that is attached to a 21 year old 4KW generator that a friend gave me.

So why not...

My friend gave me a generator with only 10 hours on it. YES, I did say 10 hours. Not a lot of use. So I brought it home, and I filled it up with a little bit of gas. Well, I was in for a surprise. Gas started leaking out of the intake. I disconnected the fuel line, and drained out the fuel into a bucket. Being somewhat of a small engine whiz, I knew what was wrong. The carbs fuel float got stuck in the open position. I take apart the intake, and take apart the fuel bowl. Sure enough, from it sitting, it got all gummed up and got stuck. So I got some carb cleaner, and cleaned it all up. I then got my Dremel, with a polishing stone, and polished it all up to ensure it was like new. Essentially, it came out nice and clean. I put it all back together. I put the set screws back a little bit, started up after only 2 pulls, and adjusted the idle and fuel sets to match the choke setting. I even changed the plug too, and changed the oil. It's great generator, and with only 10 hours on it, I'm sure it will last a long time.

 

If you own a generator, you need to run it about 15 minutes every month. If not, you'll be dealing with these type problems when you do REALLY need it. And then is NOT the time. 3 hour or 30 hours, makes no difference.

 

x2 ^^

 

Be careful with it: Coleman has stopped production of the generators {I think they licensed the name} and parts {for the generator head itself} are hard to find. The B&S engine will be easy for parts but if the generator itself is bad, forget it.

Woof
Bowser

 

The one my friend gave me is a Generac. They still continue to support that generator too. It was an awesome find on my part.