Generator Guys/Small Engine guys
 

I have a Premier Pow'r Guard ( bought out by Baldor ) R45 4500/4000 Generator. I got this when I bought my house a few years ago. Has 124 hours on it. Always maintained, by my father. Since I've acquired it about 5 years ago, I've ran it every couple of months as a general maintenance. With the possibility that Hurricane Mathew runs up the east coast, I took it out to make sure everything was good to go. Ran into a problem. The thing will not come off of Auto Idle. It is producing electricity, and I can manually hold the throttle open, and generator power increases. I checked the manual online, and ran through the checks, IE; ground connection, and idle on Carb. The auto idle piston will open up when I manually hold throttle open, but will not stay open. Any suggestions ?

Don't you have to put a load on it to get it to come off auto idle? Did you try plugging something like a shop vac into it and turning it on?

Yes and no. If you rurn the auto idle switch off, it will run full power. If the switch is on, and you put a load on, it will auto run at full power, and throttle down when the load is removed.. I turned the switch off, and nothing. Put a load on with switch on and the off and it stayed at idle.

I'm familiar with gen sets.... but the particular brand you have I do not recall ever working on.

Is the switch electric, or vacuum operated?
Sounds like that is where the issue is....

This is the exact unit I own. Apparently Baldor bought them out. I can't find parts for it. The switch is electric.Robin/Subaru motor

I'd check the fuse's or circuit breakers. Then I'd look for a bad connection in the idle circuit. Did a google search "Pow'r Guard R45 4500/4000 Generator" and found this.

http://www.baldor.com/Shared/manuals/g00269-303.pdf

If you can't fix the problem I'd look for a way to simply bypass to idle solenoid. Just make sure that the governor can still control the engine speed.

Don't know if this will help or not:
I have an old miller welder/ power generator.
It can be started with 12V battery or rope start.
If a battery in not connected, or is dead, it can be rope started, and will run normally, but the solenoid controlled throttle will not work. :bigthink:

Did a little more digging. Looks like they were sold to Baldor and then Baldor sold them to Generac. Looks like the idle control is a Subaru item, see the last link. From what I can see it looks like if you can't fix it, it should be easy to unhook it and just run it at rated high speed. Probably 3600 RPM's.

Pow'r Guard R45 4500/4000 Generator
http://www.baldor.com/Shared/manuals/g00269-303.pdf

Baldor sold to Generac
http://www2.baldor.com/products/generators.asp

Subaru manual (See page 57)
http://www.subarupower.com/media/man...5847749310.pdf

After quickly looking through the information that Sam postsed, I imaging that you either have a bad connection, or the idle module has failed. (BIG THANKS to Sam for doing all that research. I really didn't have time.) It didn't surprise me that there is a module for the idle control, I just didn't know how advanced a machine it was.

Look through the manuals and see if you can fix it. If not, yes a generator always runs at 3600 RPM. Just as Sam suggested, disable the idle control and set it to run that fast.

See, this is why I love this page. You get honost answers, and not a bunch of people who are experts, trying to belittle you. Tomorrow is my first day off, and Ill let you guys know what happens.

Pete

If your gen set turns out to be dead one of these Harbor Freight generators may be an alternative.

If you have any luck like me, the generator will "fix itself". My Honda generator had the problem a long time ago with auto idle not working. Can't remember with if it was stuck in idle or full throttle. It was not a problem when auto idle was turned off. After a few uses without the auto feature, it works again.

I guess I better get out there and check up the generator for this possible visit by Matthew.

Now, if anything.... It's possible you have a switch between 110/120 volts and 220/240 volts. Auto idle may not work if switched to high voltage. Just a thought.

No such switch exists on any generator..... 220 isn't higher voltage, it's just two 110 circuits. 110V is all the gen puts out, it just does it on two different fields of the alternator. Actually..... an alternator (the part of the generator that makes power) puts out 3 phase and rectifies it to 1 ph. (Even ones on your car.)

Attachment 78803On my generator....it does!
Attachment 78803
You see the switch? I do understand there's two different 110/120 fields (or hots) to make 220/240......I do run 220/240 equipment of the generator. I run power to house(transfer panel) with the generator switched to 240. This generator, though, does operate on auto throttle either low or high setting. I merely have thought some generators may not auto throttle on 220/240.

Boy....I'm getting tired of being wronged by you!

A circuit breaker?

I think it works like an idle switch on a welder/generator.
If no current is required, the engine drops to an idle.
As soon as current is required,( when you strike an arc,) it revs to 3600.
There is a switch to select "auto idle" or constant high rpm's.
That is how my miller works and a lot of others I've used in later years. :beerchug:

Now that you put up pics, I see. That switch is for the plug-in below it. Notice the plug is labeled 120V/240V? Yeah... it's for that plug, not the whole generator.



Man, I'm tired of being right....

Alright, I disconnected the auto idle switch, and it didn't do anything, even under power. It should be noted though that when i move the switch from "On" to "off" the idle rises slightly. Also, I noticed that on one of the AC circuit breaker "push to reset buttons" the button is all the way depressed, and will not come out. It is producing electricity when I hold the throttle open.

Something weird just occurred. I zip tied the throttle to about 3600 RPMs, and plugged in my garage fridge to test the electricity it was producing. I had the auto idle button On, when I removed the load, it went into auto idle. With the throttle open, i placed theload back on, and it revved backed up. Thisnis only happening whith the throttle zip tied open. Could it be a carb adjustment?

No, it isn't carb adjustment.

Post a pic of what you did.....

I only did this to test out the electricity. Not sure why the auto idle work when at full throttle.

Unless you guys think otherwise, I'm beginning to think that this has something to do with the Idler Solenoid that is attached to the carburetor. It seems that the rocker switch for auto idle is functioning, because the RPMs go up slightly. I noticed that the plunger on the solenoid is not extending all the way out automatically like it is designed to do under load. The problem is finding the parts. I've found the part number, but can't find a replacement.

I'll look the pics over better this evening when I can use a PC with a bigger screen.

OK... Getting back to this.

So... When you start this gen set up, it should go right to 3600RPM with the auto idle in the off position. Does it do that? Or does it just idle?

I'm not going to lie, I have not tracked down a parts manual or an engine service manual for this thing, as I really didn't have time. But, I DO know that the auto idle is just that.... auto idle, not auto rev, which is different. It senses when there is no load, so it sends the engine to idle. Not the other way around.

It is possible that the bolt that sets the governor got loose and isn't set right. But lets take that a step at a time because it has to be set correctly, there is a procedure.

When I start the engine with auto idle off, it goes right to idle. When I flip the switch to the on position, the RPMs drop very slightly. I do have a parts manual that I found online.

Ok.

In the pic you showed of the governor set up:
Either can you post a closer pic of the area you circled?
When you hook the spring back up to the fixed point, does it pull the governor arm over and keep it under tension? It should.
Also, post a pic of the idle solenoid. I think your issue is the governor fixed point has moved.

Yes, I believe you're right on this. When I moved the spring attached to the arm to the last hole, far right, it goes on and off to auto idle. When the spring is moved to the far left hole, it does not go into auto idle. Far right hole, it's making 200 volts out of 300 on AC meter. At idle it's making 100 volts

200 volts is a bit low, unless the generator meter is not accurate I suggest you adjust the throttle to get a 60Hz line frequency and the cheapest way to do it is a kill-o-watt meter (Under $30).

You got a AVR controlled generator and some Chinese unit (Generator section) produce crappy sine wave who are a PITA to adjust correctly, they can toast electronic equipment's so take care.