Generator help? O.T.

Hi fellows, I do have an old '52 Ford 8n so this is slightly tractor related. If some of you live closer to me, then you would know about the F4 tornado that hit my particular area in Eclectic, Al. Messed up a lot of houses, mine included, and sadly killed some folks. We have a small 76 acre place here, very rural so we are very self reliant most of the time. Tore half of my roof off and blew up a couple of smaller buildings here on my place. Put a lot of timber on the ground in the creek bottom, it was bad. Well, I had to use the generator the next day as we did not have power for 4 days or so. It's an 8 hp with a briggs motor on it. I had an elect. shop check it several years ago (maybe 7 or so) and they put new brushes in it and gave me a new set and showed me how to do it the next time. It wasn't putting out any power is why it was worked on that time.
Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago after the tornado hit. The generator cranked okay after some fresh gas and ran just fine. Except...the power level was low. It would not run my side by side ref/freezer, but would run the small chest freeze on the back porch (deer meat and such). It would barely run a very small fan in the bedroom and maybe a light. About 16 years or so when Hurricane Opal went thru here, it would run a dang window unit ac and a tv and a couple of lamps...so whats up withe the power on this thing. It is putting about 106 volts ac out now, where a long time ago it would put out 115-120 Volts Is there some way to turn the power up on this a little? It cranks and runs wide open all the time so there is no adjustment to the engine to make it run faster....lol. Trying to avoid another trip to the rapir shop and $70. it would be nice if it was something simple...never is though...lol. Thanks, Gary

Sounds like you may have a dirty commutator that is the part the brushes run one. If you can pull a brush out easy you might be able to clean it up with fine emery cloth or a pencil eraser. I have had to do that on my Lincoln portable welder in the past to get it to work

Thanks, what would i use to clean it up with? The brushes (2) are just held in by 2 small screws at the end of the generator. gonna be a small space to stick something into.

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make with generators is that they don't run them regularly. Your generator's ability to make electricity will be severely compromised if you don't run it about once a month for 30 minutes or so, with a load on it. Owner's manuals always specify this. This is why standby generators always start and run for about a half hour once a month.

Not all critters are the same, but I have found bad capacitors in the box with the switch/breaker/receptacles and these have something to do with voltage regulation. Might try checking them if your unit is like that.

Maybe the eraser on the end of a pencil might do the trick or they do make a spray electrical cleaner that might work. What happens is if not used much it gets a glaze on the area the brush run on and that keep it from make good contact so low voltage. Some times simple use will fix it some times not

Now you have cleaned the brushes. Put a medium load on it, I turn all the lights on in the house and the shop, I then set the speed of the gen to make 125 volts. there is a screw on your engine. I have two 10 hp 5000 watt generators, and I don't think they have any brushes. You soon find out what uses the most electricity around your house. Two curling irons, toaster, microwave, big tv and the lights, will pretty much load a 5000 gen, I forgot two refrigerators. Glad you are all well, Tornadoes, are a terrible thing, Our prayers are with you. We were struck 22 years ago. Everything was destroyed but our house, It is made you of Oak. All the windows were blew out and the shingles gone. It is decked and sided with full 1 inch ship lapped boards. It moved it on the foundation about a inch and a half. We lived here for a long time with plywood over everything but the back door, like living in a cave. We had a lot of friends show up to help. One loaned us his new pickup, another left his backhoe for at least 6 months. The list goes on and on. We also had good insurance, after we whined a little. The bottom line is leave your troubles to GOD every evening, and everything will work out. Our house and sheds are better now than they would have been. Hang in there Vic

Now you have cleaned the brushes. Put a medium load on it, I turn all the lights on in the house and the shop, I then set the speed of the gen to make 125 volts. there is a screw on your engine. I have two 10 hp 5000 watt generators, and I don't think they have any brushes. You soon find out what uses the most electricity around your house. Two curling irons, toaster, microwave, big tv and the lights, will pretty much load a 5000 gen, I forgot two refrigerators. Glad you are all well, Tornadoes, are a terrible thing, Our prayers are with you. We were struck 22 years ago. Everything was destroyed but our house, It is made you of Oak. All the windows were blew out and the shingles gone. It is decked and sided with full 1 inch ship lapped boards. It moved it on the foundation about a inch and a half. We lived here for a long time with plywood over everything but the back door, like living in a cave. We had a lot of friends show up to help. One loaned us his new pickup, another left his backhoe for at least 6 months. The list goes on and on. We also had good insurance, after we whined a little. The bottom line is leave your troubles to GOD every evening, and everything will work out. Our house and sheds are better now than they would have been. Hang in there Vic

Plug in one of those Kill-a-watt meters and
measure voltage, frequency and watts.
Old dry capacitors in the regulator are suspect.

Thanks so much everyone. I will print this out and put it in the stack of "to do" stuff and get back to ya'll when it does get done. I'll catch this on a rainy day when I can't continue the "clean up" of the trees that are down. Thanks again, Gary.