Hey guys welcome back So today i brought home this generac Gp5500 This one was a craigslist find it was Listed Only at 200 but the listing didn't say Much about it it didn't even have a Picture so i did inquire asking for more Information and wasn't given too much Other than it's a good running machine And only needs basic maintenance done to It including the oil and A fuel line replacement so Didn't sound too bad and definitely the Right price i mean these things usually Sell for twice What he was asking at least so i went to Go pick it up and once i got there you Know i could see that the condition was Actually pretty good despite the dirt That was on it now i was short on time i Did not have a chance to start it you Know i just pulled the engine over it Has compression and i checked the tank You know the tank is dry and free of Rust so i think we're in pretty good Shape but there were a couple red flags You know i asked him about the fuel line That needed replacement and you know he Started pointing at this line that exits From the top of the tank Pointing down at the air box that it was Leaking so That line actually is not the fuel line
The fuel line is Over there this here is just a vent you Know there's only fuel vapor there so if It was leaking It most likely was the carburetor that Was flooding over so i'm sure we have Issues there And to make matters worse He also added that the engine would Stall so He had to make some adjustments to fix That And he started pointing at the idle set Screw basically he Drove the idle set screw all the way in To stop it from stalling you can just See it there So That is not a good thing You know this generator does not idle That screw should not have been used to Fix that problem so Most likely driving it in all the way Like he did is going to cause this Engine to run fast when not under load i Mean ideally it should be at about 61.5 Hertz and driving it in like that May be causing this engine to run Quite faster than that potentially In the 70 hertz range so before doing Anything I'm going to get this outside you know I've never tested that i want to see how Fast he was running it and then we'll go
From there But before we can do that we do need to Check the oil It actually looks pretty good it's just A touch below full and the oil color is Pretty decent And always check the governor arm Linkage make sure it moves you know that Throttle on the carburetor can become Stuck and the resting position is full Open throttle so if it is stuck and you Start it like that it's going to make Quick work of your engine and in this Case we're good so this thing should be Safe to start Assuming the carburetor is capable so Let's give it a try All right pretty much ready to go get The space heater and kilowatt hooked up As well as the fuel i haven't turned it On yet i am thinking that that needle And seat aren't going to work too well So don't want to flood it too soon and Also hooked up an inductive tachometer The other end of this wire is wrapped Around the spark plug wire and that'll Tell us the engine speed and rpm so I'm thinking that this is actually going To run faster than i estimated earlier So i'm going to be a little bit slow Turning the choke off that'll keep the Engine speed under control as long as That choke is applied and i also have The space heater i can turn that on to
Slow things down as well so Let's give it a try [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Not too bad it's at 60 About 64 hertz 121.2 volts All right i'm going to slow it down a Bit [Music] Yeah i don't think this is right Yeah that's good it's hard to read but It's 120.5 And 61.4 [Applause] [Music] Yeah it seems like we might be down on Power A bit 58.8 hertz It's a bit slow So [Music] [Music] All right overall not too bad it started Right up the carb actually seems to be Doing a halfway decent job now the Engine speed was not as fast as i Thought you know with that idle set Screw all the way in we're at about 65 Hertz so back the idle set out that Brought the engine speed down to 60 Hertz so then i adjusted the governor
Itself and increased the spring tension To get the speed back up to 61 and a Half hertz so overall not too bad but When loading it up to 3000 watts the Engine speed dropped a bit more than i Would have liked so initially i was Thinking maybe we had an engine power Issue So i manually opened that throttle a bit More and it had no problem getting back Up to speed so it's not an engine Horsepower issue it's just a governor Sensitivity issue so maybe we can adjust Or reset the governor and that'll help And a lot of times there's Different holes you can put the governor Spring on to change The sensitivity in this case i think There is A little bit of adjustment that can be Done so i'm going to get this back Inside Probably get the tank off so we can see Better what's going on And Try a few things and see if we can't get This governor to respond a bit better All right there's an up close look At the governor linkage external to the Engine and everything Is exactly where it should be i don't See any issues with it The one adjustment that can be made is Right here this spring can be moved in
And by doing that you're going to make The governor more responsive to a load But only to a point you move it in too Far the engine is going to start Surging so I have never seen the spring anywhere Except where it is So i'm not in a rush to move it but i Think what i do want to do is get that Carburetor cleaned up i know the person Who sold it to me had issues with it Flooding and also the engine stalling so We'll start there and while we're at it We can also check the calibration of the Governor to see if we need to do a reset And Assuming it doesn't then we'll just Clean up that carb put it back on and do Another test [Applause] All right so as far as testing the Calibration of this governor The way i do it is just to remove This governor rod from the carburetor And then from there you can see where The end of this rod lines up with Respect to Where the hole is where this drops down Into So let's see if we can do this without Removing the carb And you can check this pretty easily With this disconnected so i still have The spring on the governor arm and
That's holding it in full open throttle That's low speed that's high speed so You just want to set The plate for the throttle in the same Position high speed And just see if these Line up And they can be off a little bit Probably less than an eighth of an inch And you'll be fine in this case things Line up perfectly so We don't need to reset the governor Things look good here Yeah it looks uh pretty good actually This is the pilot jet under here And the main jet here And that's pretty much it there's not Too much to this carb so i'm going to Run through everything with the wire We'll soak it a bit in the ultrasonic And then bolt it back on the machine This here is not a jet But there are pickup holes here on the Bottom To pick up the fuel which sends it to The main jet and there is a lot of Debris here Don't think it's enough to cause an Issue though You All right while the carburetor is Cooking away i'm going to deal with this Mess Yeah something like that i still have a
Ways to go this is actually taking a lot Longer than i thought i think there was A critter living on top of the stator You know fortunately i don't think the Damage is too bad This here is just a Kind of a protective piece that goes Around the stator it's not the stator Itself so i think we'll be fine i'm just Going to keep going on this and Turning back on in a second we'll get That card back together Okay all cleaned up not that it was that Bad so Let's get it back together I'm just going to test the function of The needle and seat When it's upside down like this It should be closed so when i blow Through it you should hear nothing if You hear anything it'll leak And that's working just fine You You Okay while i'm here i'm going to check The valve clearance it should be done Every 200 hours i'm sure it's never been Done so i'll do that i'm also going to Change the oil i have no idea what kind Of oil is in there whether it's Synthetic or mineral or straight weight Or multi-grade so around here Synthetic 10w30 is the way to go so That's what i'm going to put in
[Music] All right there's two ways to do this You could find top dead center of the Compression stroke and you'll know that When the exhaust valve is closing and The piston is coming to the top There is also a top dead center but That's of the exhaust stroke and if the Piston is coming to the top and you see The exhaust closing And the intake opening You're on the wrong stroke you need to Go around one more time to get the Intake stroke And i find the easiest is actually just To pull the engine over and when one Valve is all the way down Like the exhaust is now You can check the intake And It feels pretty good I mean i'll measure that up but let's Just check the exhaust Yeah the exhaust seems a bit excessive So let's see what that's at It's not that far off Um has the slightest bit of drag let's Try a 10. Yeah no it's bigger than a 10. Let's try a 12. It's not a 12. All right and that's a 14. the 14 Actually feels a little bit too tight so I'd say it's closer to 13 thousands and
That's too much it's going to lead to Performance problems in the engine if it Gets To be too excessive this push rod could Fall out And i think even before that happens the Compression release is going to stop Working the way that it should so it's Going to be really hard to start anyway We'll bring that down to eight and then We'll check the intake It feels pretty good Just going to rotate the engine around And double check it Yeah that's good Yeah the intake's a little bit off the Eight Actually fits pretty well but not the Six so Tighten that up just a bit So Yeah we're good [Music] You All right ready to give this thing Another try now i'm not expecting the Governor droop issue to be solved by the Carb cleaning I think it is going to drop by about Three hertz for a 3000 watt load what I'm curious is if i apply another 2 000 Watts is it going to drop another two Hertz or is it gonna stay at about the Speed that it is because ideally
When we're close to the max load of this We should be at around 58 hertz if not Better so to that end i have Four space heaters ready to go now this Is a 6000 watt load this is more than The generators rated for and most likely I'll blow the circuit breaker if i try This so The two heaters on the ends they're on Different legs we'll turn those on to The max 1500 watts each and then the two In the middle i'll put them on the Medium setting which is about 900 watts each so all together i'll put About 4 800 watts On this generator and see how the engine Speed does so let's start it up we'll Get the engine warmed up and then we'll Put it to the test [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] All right well that surprised me i never Thought applying a heavier load would Result in a better result but that's What just happened you know really the Only difference here was that i did bump The no load speed up a bit to about 62.1 hertz And Clean that carburetor so this time i
Applied a 4800 watt load and the Generator held just fine at about 60 Hertz 120 volts so this thing's doing Exactly what it should There's no issue here the engine's Running well the powerhead's doing well This is a good generator so I hope this video helps someone Thanks for watching