Bad generator starter.

[Air345Fly]

The starter for my generator would not crank the generator. It would spin
but would sound like grinding metal. I know that sound from when I was
young and working on junk cars. Generally it meant that both the Bendix
and the engine ring gear were trash.

There is no way to get the starter out without dropping the generator.


I removed the starter and found this:



The teeth of the plastic gear are completely gone!

The ring gear looks OK. No doubt destroying the plastic gear saved the
ring gear but a plastic gear seems a little inadequate for such a demanding
application.



I purchased a replacement starter on eBay for $29 with free shipping.
Here are the old and new together. Notice the parts to the left of the
old starter. I fished them out of the generator bell housing. They
broke off the Bendix of the old generator. The spring serves to keep
the gear back away from the ring gear when the starter is disengaged.
The new starter has a different design in this regard.



I put the new starter in place and gave it a try. It cranks the engine
well. I did not try to start it, that is the next task. After that I have
to get the generator back in place which looks to be a struggle.

Pete.

[mayco]

Ouch! No fun at all...hope she fires right up when you get that far!

[Air345Fly]

I did start it up and it ran OK. Not bad for something that probably sat
for 20 years not used, the hour meter had only 300 hours on it.

One thing that I noticed is that as it was running out of gas with
my temporary setup the engine surged a lot! When there was
enough gas it ran smoothly.

Some people have had trouble with this in threads from the past.
Perhaps they just had fuel problems; bad pump, clogged filters,
or pinched gas lines.

It is an Emerald III Onan type NHE 6.5 KW generator.

Pete.