The song might say “Nothing but blue skies from now own”, but we can’t depend on that in New England. Our peak hurricane season still has a few weeks left, and storms like Hurricane Sandy (October 29th) remind us to always be prepared.
Today being the first blue sky day in a bit, I decided to make sure my Honda EU2000i would start. I purchased it in 2011 (Hurricane Irene took our power down for several days after the generator arrived – whew!) and it still runs perfectly. However, “running” doesn’t include starting, and it has been difficult to start the past half dozen years or so. Even a trip to the Honda Service Center didn’t fix things.
I always suspected it was a fuel issue, and was preparing to shoot some starter fluid into the carburetor. But I found the generator covered in dirt and grime (it sits next to the leaf blower and lawn mower). So I turned the fuel on and went about cleaning the outside for 20 minutes or so (it really was a sticky mess). In tilting the generator from side to side to get to the spots on the bottom, I notice a bit of fuel leaked out of the overflow pipe. I cleaned that up, started to give it a big pull, and about half-way through it, it sprang to life! This is the first time in years I haven’t pulled my arm out of the socket trying to start it.
My assumption is it simply takes quite a long time to fill the carb via gravity feed. So from now on, I’m going to turn on the fuel knob and let it sit for 15 minutes before trying to start it up.
