Generator won't start unless fuel fed directly into carb

[TylerFrankel]

Hello all!

I have a Coleman Generator that I am working on for a friend, it's 2.6HP OHV and I believe its 2000Watt. It would not start when they gave it to me, so I first checked the spark plug, and it's fine. My next step was to try and feed it fuel directly through carb air intake, and sure enough it fired up for a few seconds until the fuel ran out. So, this lets me know somewhere between the tank and piston the fuel is blocked. I suspect either the fuel on/off switch, fuel lines themselves, or carb, are clogged. However, I can't get the fuel line off the carb because it has sort of dry rotted on, so I have no way of testing which part is faulty. Any suggestions on what part is bad and/or how to get this fuel line off of the carb? Any help appreciated, thanks!

 

[Darryl G]

Hi. I'm not one of the mechanics on this site (I'm just the night watchman, lol). The first thing I would do is drain the fuel from the tank and add a little fresh fuel if you haven't already. Sometimes that's all it takes. But if the fuel lines are in that sort of shape, they need to be replaced anyway, and the carb likely needs at least a cleaning as well. May as well replace the fuel shut-off too. It's a really bad idea to run equipment with fuel lines that are in poor condition and failure of them is imminent.

I'm sure one of the more qualified members here will be along at some point. There's very little activity here at this time of the day.

 

[BlazNT]

Darryl G is correct. First thing is to replace the fuel lines from the tank to the carb. I always replace the fuel shutoff at the same time. It is easier to just put a slice in the fuel line at the tank and carb and replace the entire thing. I normally build the entire fuel line before I start removing it so minimal fuel is spilled.

 

[TylerFrankel]

Darryl G is correct. First thing is to replace the fuel lines from the tank to the carb. I always replace the fuel shutoff at the same time. It is easier to just put a slice in the fuel line at the tank and carb and replace the entire thing. I normally build the entire fuel line before I start removing it so minimal fuel is spilled.

I did end up replacing the fuel lines, but it turned out the carb was just dirty. I had a lot of trouble getting the float bowl off, because it was torqued on too tight, but once off I cleaned the jet and she ran like new. Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[Darryl G]

I did end up replacing the fuel lines, but it turned out the carb was just dirty. I had a lot of trouble getting the float bowl off, because it was torqued on too tight, but once off I cleaned the jet and she ran like new. Thanks for your suggestions!

Thanks for the follow-up post. Glad you got it running. Best wishes to you and all those in the path of Florence.