Honeywell generator HW2000i Bought it cheap and now I know why. Started it up and it ran for a few minutes then shut down like someone turned it off. Wouldn't restart. Waited an hour. Started right up. Ran a couple of minutes then shut off again. Each time it runs less time until it only runs a couple of seconds. Still have to wait an hour or more in between starts. Now it won't start at all. Soooooooo........ Started troubleshooting for real. At least tried to. No schematics, no manual, no information online. Honeywell's website says no manual available. Anyway, started figuring it out. It appears the spark coil is not putting out spark now. Can't see how that would have been the original problem, but its the main problem now. How can I test the spark coil? I don't know whether to apply voltage to the primary wire or just ground it. If voltage, how much? Grounding it doesn't seem to make a difference. Where can i get a schematic, or at least an explanation of how the controls and spark coil are supposed to function?
Electrical Supplies - Honeywell
Answers & Comments
I would test the coil by removing it from the circuit, and attaching a properly gapped spark plug to the secondary, then apply and un-apply 12 volts to the primary. If you get a good strong spark on the spark plug tip each time you apply or remove the 12V, then you know that the coil is OK. This doesn't give you a measurement, but you don't know what the voltage is supposed to be anyway.
You might also try measuring the resistance across the primary and across the secondary and compare these numbers to a known good coil (anything similar should be in the same ballpark). Make sure to do that with the coil removed from any other connections and short the terminals together to remove any residual charge before you try to measure the resistance.
I hope this helps, good luck Al K
Thanks for the suggestions, Al. I appreciate it very much. Seems the spark coil was ok. One of the issues that kept puzzling me was the small gap and very carboned up spark plug. I thought it was of minor concern because I assumed it was a result of the problem. The generator was too new to have that much carbon on the plug unless there was a contributing problem affecting spark. It finally dawned on me that perhaps the spark plug was gapped too small from the factory and was warming up only to short out and stop the engine. Each time the engine ran less long, as the carbon built up on the plug a little more each run, decreasing the gap even more. Finally the plug wouldn't fire at all. Possibly contributing to the problem was a no-name spark plug (Torch, of all things) Luckily it crossed easily to an NGK plug.
The generator fired right up after putting in the new plug.
It's always something simple, no matter how complicated it seems on the surface. I still would like to find a service manual or set of schematics for this thing. Troubleshooting in the dark isn't my idea of fun. And then there's that flaky primer system. I wonder whose crack dream that came from? One would think a simple in-line primer bulb would have been much cheaper and simpler for a production unit. That stupid vacuum bulb primer system has got to go. 30-50 pumps? They are smoking the good stuff in that drawing room. I want my generator to be reliable and start easily, soooo..... I intend to modify my unit to remove the vacuum primer, plug the ports and include a small in-line primer. Hopefully it will be an improvement.
I took my HW2000i out of storage, had to clean the main jet and idle jet even though i ran the carb bowl dry when i shut it down. It fired up, kind of reluctantly as this unit always has. ran it for about 3 hours and then it died and i couldn't restart it. so I split the case and replaced all the fuel line as they where deteriorated and fuel filter. I also added a Hardline hour/tackmeter. still wouldn't start but i saw the rpm meter registered the spark (rpm reading) so i pulled the stock cheap plug and tested with ohm meter and it was bad. replaced with NGK and it fired with one pull, like it should have from the first day!