Hello smart people of the beeb, I'm having issues with my yamaha ef2000is generator and I'm not sure what to try next to fix it. So I'm turning to the helpful minds here. Basically it's not staying on. With the choke out but all the energy saving switches turned off, I'll pull the chord to start it and it'll fire up for maybe a second then die down again. (if the choke's in, it won't fire up, even if it's warmed up) The generator maybe only has 30 hours on it, and everything is still pretty clean on the inside. If I give it intermittent spritzes of starter fluid in the airbox I can get it to stay running but once the starter fluid dies out the engine dies again. I took out the carb and gave it a decent cleaning. It HAS sat for long periods of time without running, so I thought maybe some bad/old fuel gunked it up, but everything looked fairly clean inside, though the jets are pretty small so I figure they could still be clogged up. after putting everything back together that didn't seem to help any. Once it warmed up a bit it would stay on a bit longer, maybe 15-20 seconds before dying, but it's a really rough sounding idle, where it almost dies then shoots up in the rpm's and dies down again. <video below shows this> I'm not too sure what might be causing it to not run smoothly. Anyone got any suggestions what might be the issue? clean the carbs again/better? a bad stepper motor? cheap parts? Most likely user error? I'm open to anything, and like always thanks for the help!
clean the carb. Same stuff happened to both mine when a local station was selling "regular unleaded" as "eth free".
My oil level got low once and it wouldn’t stay running, no oil light or anything. mince I topped off the oil, it ran fine.
Is the generator still under warranty? Has it ever been registered? If not, its a very simple process to do online. They dont ask for proof of purchase. Mine was surging, and it ended up being a bad electronic board on the carb which ended up being under warranty.
that'll be the easiest thing to try. I'll give that one a go first. the oil level looked ok, but it might be just low enough it doesn't want to run. I'm not getting an oil light either, so it might be a similar issue. gotta double check, I got it a good 5 years ago or so. there's a good chance I was lazy and didn't register it. ran with the tank cap off and it still did the same thing. good idea though, worth looking into more
Carb Pilot Jet.... easy to change.... the key with these issues is to prevent them.... Shut the gas off then let it run out... just don’t turn off and put away...
So what's controlling the shut down feature and what does it control? Fuel or ignition? I would assume ignition. Wouldn't think if that were the case starter fluid would help your situation. Sounds like a dirty carb, doesn't take much on a little engine like that. We found out with our Honda it doesn't like sitting around too long. Instead of chasing shit we just threw a whole new carb on, good as new.
If the oil level is low, you will have a constant no-start. It disables the ignition. Not your issue. Runs on choke, then dies, or surges. As other have said, Pilot jet. It is external on the carb, it is on top and has the smallest hole in the world in it. Depending on year it either screws in or is held down with a small clamp held down by a philips screw. You don't even have to pull the carb off. Now getting the plastic off is another story. Don't work about the bowl, I would wager its fine. And no, trying to spray shit through it or running something through the tank wont work. You have to pull the jet and manually clean it.
This, the pilot in that has got to be tiny, doesn't take much at all to plug them. They're cheap, should be like $3, don't even bother to try to clean it, just replace.
fantastic. thanks for the info. I'll dig into it this weekend, plastics be dammed. at least I have the model where the pilot is just held down with the clamp, hopefully making it a bit easier.
nope, not the case on my 2014 2000 genny. it would start and surge up and down for a short period like it was low on gas, then shut down.
That's because when the genny sits all the oil settles. Makes the level high enough to open the float switch that grounds the ignition system. When you start it, the splash oil system takes a bit to churn the oil enough until it keeps the float closed. To OP, check your oil too. Heck to everyone with a generator, check your oil. Won't hurt.
can you snap a pic of this? unless im under full load, i get a surging/revving engine. i cant seem to locate it unless i need to pull the carb completely off the motor? this thread is timely.
I do not have an image. Looking down from the top of the carb the pilot jet is a brass colored thing. It is directly below the idle speed screw. If you watch the gen surge you can see the throttle opening and closing rapidly. The throttle shaft and exterior plate will close upon the idle speed screw (a machine screw with a spring on it). You might need to move or remove the the idle speed screw to remove the pilot jet, count the turns in until seated and then reinstall exactly as removed.
