Standby Generator

John B.

Well-known Member
My 10 HP 4500 watt portable generator wasn't working. I took it all apart and tested all the circuits. All of them tested good so I put it all back together. It still didn't generate any electric. So while it was running and I had my 1/2 inch electric drill plugged into it I pulled the trigger on the drill and turned the chuck by hand. That's all it took to excite the armature in the generator and it started to generate and my electric drill took off. The generator is working great now just like it use to. Glad that's all it was. I was starting the think I was going to have to scrap the generator or buy a new generator unit for my engine.
 
I wish I had your good fortune, I've bought 2 Generators new that have quit charging on me after about 50 hrs. run time (after warranty expired). I tried the exiting trick on both but no response.
Vern
 
Bob, yes I saw it on Youtube years ago. I have repair manuals on generators and the manuals kept talking about voltage regulators inside the unit. All my generator has is 2 diodes for the armature. One of them was bad so I replaced it. That didn't work so then I tried the drill excitation method and to my surprise it worked.

I had a portable welder years ago that wouldn't weld so I connected the two welding leads together and reved the engine up above governed speed and all of a sudden it loaded up and that was enough to flash the welder and it worked again.
 
Doesn't work with all generators. But it is a good thing to know. Better for someone to know it. Than send it to a shop that will charge you $$$. For doing the same thing.
 
Ya that drill trick works well I have resurrected several dead ones that way. A word of caution though in case anyone else tries this. I have a nice little 7HP Kohler set that wouldn't make power for any apparent reason and the drill trick didnt work either. For some reason the thought came to me to try driving the drill with with another drill. I sawed a piece of 1/4" rod and chucked them together and spun the drill up and it worked. Problem was I had also locked the trigger back on the one plugged into the set so I could hold on to the contraption. When the generator powered up it jerked the drills out of my hands and wound them up in a mess on the floor until they jerked the plug out of the set. My right had got banged up pretty bad. Not smart Butch! Be careful out there.
 
(quoted from post at 07:24:28 10/26/16) A momentary jolt from a 12-volt battery is another way to do it.

I've got a 4000 watt belt driven generator. The manual says 1-1/2 volt to 12 volt battery.
Once before I had heard of using a drill motor, I used a 1-1/2 volt AAA battery. There's a hesitation and you think it's not working, then suddenly it's working.

Dusty
 
Butch (OH),

Please post this in the YT story department. Meaning no offense, but I nearly coughed, choked, and laughed at the same time reading your adventure!

D.
 
Doesn't take much. The recipe for one of our older brush type ones in Oz was one of those small 9 volt batteries across the brush caps
 
Mine was a variable speed drill. I did have the trigger pulled all the way back to high speed though.
 
(quoted from post at 19:29:51 10/29/16) We bought a Kohler in 2012, my neighbors were calling when there was power outage. Hal

I turn on every light that all the neighbours can see during power outages so they know we have a generator and they don't.
 

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