Being as timely a person as I usually am, I put off checking out my generator in hopes that I would not lose power during Irene. Sure, I know about all that kind of stuff, after all I did take a small engine repair class in high school. And, like most everything else from high school, it sits right up there foremost in my brain pan whenever a mower, or weed eater, or, for that matter, a generator is in need of work.
Back then, I learned to set the gap on a spark plug using a device called a feeler gauge, and how to check if the motor was getting spark, and how to make sure the gas was getting through to the cylinders.
Over the years, I have added to that knowledge. I learned how to pull off the head and use a hammer to adjust sticky valves, and how to use small C-clamps after breaking the heads off the bolts that are supposed to keep the piston cylinder from losing compression. Once, I was able to take a metal strip and use it to cover the space where a bolt was missing, bolting the strip down on either side and hoping the strip would provide enough force to allow the motor to have enough compression to run. It did, surprisingly enough.
But this time, I felt would be different. This time, I had the proper tools, the proper know how, and a relatively new piece of equipment, that is the generator. Now, that doesn’t mean the generator was near what I needed for what I wanted to do. I bought the generator more than three years ago, with the intent of using it to support power in our pop-up camper. I figured to run lights and a portable AC unit, 2500 KW would be more than sufficient. Please take notice that I am well aware 2500 KW of power is nowhere near enough to run a modern household.
On the other hand, I only wanted to run a freezer and a refrigerator. I was unconcerned about things like AC, computers, entertainment centers, lights, coffee makers (okay, we swapped the refrigerator for the coffee maker long enough to make a pot of coffee then back to the refrigerator), and other such devices that we have become dependent upon over the years.
Really, I think I know how it feels to go through withdrawal now. In fact, no junkie ever had to deal with the kind of cold turkey I had to deal with because of not being able to access the Internet. I nearly sold my family just for an hour on Facebook. But not to fear, I held off. Instead, I ate a whole bag of Reese’s Cups, and locked myself in the bathroom until I felt normal again.
But all that aside, back to my generator story. As I said earlier, I did take a small engine repair course back in high school, which at the time I thought might be useful as a sort of fall back plan if partying and failing to do homework, yet again, didn’t carry me through. Actually, I was way ahead of everyone along those lines; I was a senior and only needed two credits to graduate.
Since I chose any road that was not academic during my previous three years, it turned out I didn’t have any other requirement except two classes. In other words, I could take anything I wanted. Small engine repair met Monday and Wednesday from 10 to 11, and I figured it was perfect. My other course ended up being Home Economics, Marriage and Child Care, which met on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, even earlier than 11. That left me with no classes in the afternoons, and absolutely no class on Friday. Did I tell you about my part time job at the Ski Resort? Oh well, that’s another story, but that is what I did with the time I carved out of school attendance.
Meanwhile, back in Colonial Heights, I was stuck with a three-year-old generator that hadn’t been run since my brother borrowed it in 2008 for a trip to Tennessee and the annual Bonnaroo concert. Since we had lost power Saturday night, it seemed like a smart thing to start checking out the generator Sunday morning. Having been a trained small engine repair mechanic, I knew it was important to check the fuel tank first. Rightly so, since I found a small amount of old gas on the bottom of the tank had caramelized. I added a bit of fresh gas to slosh around and break up the mess. I then drained that into a bucket, not realizing the bucket had a hole until it was all over the front stoop. Take 10 minutes out for clean up, then on with the project. I felt the on-off valve might be gummed up, so I took it off just to make sure it was clear. It wasn’t, so that was a good idea and I fixed it.
Then I decided to check the carburetor, too, and sure enough it was clear. My brother must have run the generator out of gas, thereby protecting the carburetor from gumming up with bad gas. I put it all back together, dumped some gas in the tank, and got ready to get things rolling.
Thankfully, I had muscle on hand that wasn’t mine. I put my son Geordie’s brawn to good work, and he spent about 10 minutes dutifully pulling the starter cord. I even tried using some ether starting fluid, but still no luck. We were disgusted, but just about then Geordie grabbed the cord and gave it one final, determined yank. Puuuuuurrrrrrrrrrr. The motor was off and running as if it had just got back from Tennessee. We were both excited; it was like a miracle.
Our next problem was that we needed the generator in the back yard. So, we hit the kill switch and carried it to the back of the house. Once there, we went to start it again. Nothing. We both cranked it for a while and still nothing. Knowing that the fuel line was working, I pulled the spark plug out and low and behold no spark. I took a wrench and “adjusted” the gap, still no spark. We were amazed. Finally, Geordie looked at the kill switch. It had a plastic protection cover over it and you couldn’t actually see the switch. He pulled off the cover and we discovered that it was a toggle switch, and the toggle was in the wrong direction.
Once we changed that, the motor started even easier than it had out front. In no time at all, we hooked up two long extension cords and had both the freezer and refrigerator running. At some point, I think I am going to have to purchase a more powerful generator, though. It seems whenever we opened the refrigerator door, we could watch the light dim telling us we were drawing too much power out of the little generator.
I guess that old small engine repair class has stood me well, something to be said about a high school education after all. And I ain’t saying nothing about the Home Ec class.
No comments:
Post a Comment