rayspang

I tried the quick fix by removing the fuel/air mixture screw and introducing carb cleaner with an eye dropper. This actually worked pretty good because the unit came up and ran great on the 150 watt setting. When going to 300 watts it surged however.  Not sure where or if there was a high speed jet, I just pulled the carb and soaked it for an hour. Cleaned out every tiny hole I could find with monofilament fishing line and aerosol carb cleaner. ( this was a real pain to remove and replace) I accidently dropped a nut down inside the engine, and this took about 45 minutes to retrieve. drat!  Now all is running great with a minor adjustment of the fuel air adjustment screw.  I'll try to familiarize myself with the some of the other carb parts so this job will be less labor intensive next time. It would be nice to unplug things with out removing the carb entirely. All in all this little gen set is fantastic for camping, light duty etc. Its the quietist one I've ever heard and just the size of a large lunch pail. Thanks for your input.

Yes I've got good spark at the plug. I used this all last week during the hurricane here in Houston.  It seemed to be getting hotter than normal so I added more oil to the gas than the recommended 100:1 mix. I was thinking that it was lacking lubrication. It got harder to start and then just quit. I think this is where I screwed up. I remembered from my Karting days that 2-stroke motors cool themselves with the gas/oil mix. richer is cooler and leaner is hotter. I'm going to pull the carb and soak it in carb cleaner to clean out those tiny jet passages. Do you know of a way to do that without pulling the carb. The bowl is easy to remove and drain but those jet passages, etc. are in the upper body.

The ex350 owners manual says that the red light will stay on if the motor slows down excessively.  This could be caused by a fouled spark arrester screen (located inside the muffler) or the exhaust screen ( located at the muffler outlet.) to reset the red overload light,you must shut the motor off. When starting an electric motor red and green will come simultaniously. This is normal if the red light goes out after about 10 seconds. If it stays on consult your Honda dealer. Other than these things, your getting into some advanced electrical troubleshooting.

I checked the compression and it was good (75psig) ,added a few drops of correct gas/ oil mix to the carb throat and guess what it, it popped off a little. Good news to me, this means the mechanics of the motor are O.K. Looks like the problem is a simple carb cleaning or rebuild.  I'm still not sure why I couldn't get it to fire with starter fluid? This should be an inexpensive fix which is always good news.

Yes i checked the arrestor and its o.k.  Also checked the screen at the muffler outlet and its clear.  I'm going to check the compression next, if I can borrow a C/T from a co-worker. Will try to add a few drops of oil/gas mix to the carb  first.