Generator Running At Half Choke?

[thedukeryan]

I bought a used Craftsman 3500 watt generator at a local pawn shop. Paid $200 which I thought was reasonable. Now the problem I am having is that it will only run at half choke. I have used it about 24hrs and it manages to run about 13 hours on 4 gallons. I am very happy with it just a bit concerned with the half choke. Other notes are that I ran it until empty. After that it would only run at 3/4 choke. I put half a can of sea foam in it ran it for say 30 minutes and it is back to running at 1/2 choke. Im guessing it sucked some crap into the carb off the bottom of the tank? The sea foam seemed to help drastically. Would you run it for a extended time to see if the sea foam breaks some of the gunk up? Another note is that the choke switch has three notches that click. 1 for off, 2 half & 3 on. It runs great when I switch the switch to the middle position. Is it possible that I am worried over nothing and this is normal? The generator runs great but i am concerned that I could possibly damage it or may be burning excess fuel.

 

[IVAZ]

Re: Generator Running At Half Choke?

Its not burning excess fuel, its not getting enough thats why it works better with less air.
Those carbs are simple to work on. Take it off clean out the inside parts with carb cleaner and blow out all the fuel passages with compressed air. Thats usually enough for those little carbs.Sometimes soaking the parts overnight is best. Check the spark plug and fuel filter if one is equipped.
BTW, I believe this is the wrong section to post this, they have a tech section for non boating related subjects.