What Did I Do to Break My Generators???

[HadEnough]

I’m at a complete loss. I broke BOTH of my generators doing something very simple.

I currently have 3 (qty) 2400 watt Nothstar Generators. They have always run like a Swiss watch for me over the years. I have owned 2 others before these over the decades.

I currently need 3 because I’m off grid and have a living area and a workshop area to air condition.

Meet the generators:

Generator 1: bought 2 years ago. Ran for thousands of hours trouble free. Ran any time it was above 85F in Florida. Hard to even imagine how well this generator performed for a gasoline portable. Recently, the AVR (automatic voltage regulator) went bad delivering 90V instead of its normal 120.

Generator 2: Bought 6 weeks ago. in the work area running like a Swiss watch.

Generator 3: Bought 6 weeks ago. Carb started spraying fuel out the top after about 4 hours of use.

What I did:

I put generator 1 and generator 3 next to each other and set them on their ends so the power heads were sticking up in the air. Oil cane out the breather tubes. Whoops.

I then took off the face plate from the generator heads, took out the AVRs and swapped them.

Now neither generator will turn!!!

I cannot pull the pull start. It’s jammed!!

I can turn the generator in the opposite direction from normal rotation. I can even pull the pull start to turn it back to where it is jammed. But I can’t pass the jammed area in the rotation.

My mind is BLOWN.

I definitely caused this problem, but all I did was stand the generators on end and swap the AVRs. Then close them back up to test.

How on Earth can swapping AVRs on an identical pair of generators cause both of them to lock up at a certain point in their rotation, but still be able to turn backwards???

My head hurts. Can’t find the logic here.

[HadEnough]

Krusty wrote:
Combustion chamber full of oil now? Pull a sparkplug and see if it will turn

Solved!!

You’re a genius.

Got the oil out of the cylinder and trying to burn it off so the thing runs right again.

It’s putting out a nice 120v when it’s not sputtering.

[BFL13]

I had to replace the pull start end of a small gen, and found it worked by the action of a plastic part ISTR called a "pall"???? anyway it was on a spring and stuck out to catch the next part in that turned whatever, can't remember the names of the parts. the plastic part can break and jam so you can't do the pull but the pall doesn't catch turning the other way where its rounded part hits first.

Sorry for the mangled description. 😞

[Darryl_Rita]

Pull out the spark plugs on both machines. You hydro-locked them with oil. Pull the recoil cord to get as much as possible out. Replace the plugs, start them up. Expect lots of smoke, as the oil burns off. Expect to replace the plugs with new ones, after the smoke quits.

[Homeless_by_Cho]

Could something dropped off when you disassembled the AVR? How far can you turn the crankshaft backwards? More than one full revolution? Do they both get stuck at about the same position?

My guess is that something (nut, bolt, bracket, tie down wire, etc) is jammed in the stator or flywheel area that allows it to only rotate so far?

LeRoy

[HadEnough]

Krusty wrote:
Combustion chamber full of oil now? Pull a sparkplug and see if it will turn

Holy ****. That’s probably a good possibility. I’ll have a look now.

[Krusty]

Combustion chamber full of oil now? Pull a sparkplug and see if it will turn

[gatorcq]

Forget logic So, when are you just start and disassemble one of them?