I took the flywheel screen off and turned the motor over by hand. I got an extra 8 or so ounces of that gas/oil mix out of the different orifices. I spun on the new Fram and filled it with the correct amount of oil. We are experiencing feeder bands from a tropical depression, which brings thunderstorms about every hour or so, so I covered the motor and called it quits for the day. If tomorrow turns out nice (it's not looking good), I'll try starting it. I am eager to start the motor, so that I can cook out the remaining gasoline in the engine.

 

IT LIVES!!

I put the plugs back in and about a gallon of gas into the tank, turned the fuel on, gave it some choke and hit "START". It fired right up in about 2 seconds! It belched smoke like crazy, which I expected. It continued to smoke for about 20 minutes, as it burned off all the crap that was flushed up from the crankcase. I let it run about 35 minutes today - long enough for the smoke to totally go away. I'll duplicate this test again tomorrow to see if it will start without all the smoke. Here's PROOF that it is working! The first picture shows the geny right after startup and turning on about 1kW of load. You can see some smoke, but it isn't near as obvious as the second picture. The geny had been running about 2 minutes for that picture. The fogginess of the photo is due to the smoke and is not a camera artifact. I have about 1 more kW of lights that I can add - I'll do that tomorrow for its testing.

I've got the geny on wooden blocks, because it should have 12.5" wheels, but only has 10" and I wanted to get things as level as I could. Now I have to go buy me some different wheels.

Boy, this thing is turning into a real money pit - I've got almost $10 into it so far - a $4 oil filter, $2 worth of oil and about $3 worth of gas! I just hope that it doesn't bankrupt me before I'm through!

I do love it when a plan comes together!

 

Look for a picture of that generator new, i vaguely remember that my neighbors, which i think is the same model, has small wheels too. Not that bigger wouldn't be better, but those could be the original.

 

Look for a picture of that generator new, i vaguely remember that my neighbors, which i think is the same model, has small wheels too. Not that bigger wouldn't be better, but those could be the original.

You will find it cheaper to put a shorter block under the end that is too high, instead of buying bigger wheels. And it may have had castors that were replaced by a block. In addition, lowering it could provide a bit more stability. And worst case, you can cut a block of wood to serve as the foot.

 

Look for a picture of that generator new, i vaguely remember that my neighbors, which i think is the same model, has small wheels too. Not that bigger wouldn't be better, but those could be the original.

The user manual says that they are 12.5". I'm not really all that worried about the geny being unlevel during normal use, I just wanted it close to level while checking and changing the oil. Also, sloping like it was, it didn't look like gas in the front could ever be used. HF has some nice wheels for about $30 for a pair, but the axle hole is 5/8". The geny's shaft is 3/4". I guess that I could turn the shaft down to 5/8".

 

Look for a picture of that generator new, i vaguely remember that my neighbors, which i think is the same model, has small wheels too. Not that bigger wouldn't be better, but those could be the original.

Here's a picture of one (not mine). Notice that the gas tank sits pretty much level.



Here's a pic of mine:


It's not much, but you can definitely tell that it isn't level. Anyway, the wheels struggle quite a bit trying to move the thing, so I think that larger wheels are in order!

 

What color is the exhaust smoke?

If it's blueish, this could indicate oil burning, a symptom of bad rings or valves.
Maybe that's why they tossed it to the curb?

 

I remember working on that engine. They need valve work done after so many hours. The v twins are great but oil ports are a challenge. It’s been a while but I think all we had to do was adjust the values and lap them. It’s not hard but it’ll take a while. We pulled the heads to do it so we don’t get abrasives in the cylinders.