So I went to start the Belco generator a couple days ago. I opened the gas petcock, set the choke, wrapped the pull cord around the engine pulley and gave it a tug. No fire. I pulled again. Still nothing, but the carburetor was gushing fuel out its vent. Well that's not supposed to happen. I figured the needle valve was stuck in the carburetor so I pulled the carburetor fuel bowl cap off after shutting off the gas petcock. Gasoline was full to the top of the bowl. I pulled the float and needle out to clean the needle and noticed there was a-sloshin' a-goin' on inside the float. I turned the float over and found a small divot in the middle of the float:
There's a small pointy finger at the bottom of the carburetor float bowl that the float rests on if the bowl is empty of gasoline. Apparently that finger has over time dented and worn the bottom of the float to the point that there's a hole in the brass. You can see the dent and a film of gas in this next photo.
The finger can be seen at the bottom of the bowl.
I soldered up the hole after giving the float a light cleaning. While I was doing the soldering I noticed that air would occasionally escape through the solder puddle because the air inside the float was heating up. I hope there isn't a permanent hole through the solder, but I guess I'll find out soon enough if the carb floods again.
I then installed a different governor spring and it seems to be the best match for keeping a constant engine RPM. This first photo below shows no load at 115 volts and 61 hertz, then the next photo shows a 1,750 watt load with 93 volts and 59 hertz. The frequency stayed fairly constant but the voltage dropped quite a bit. Not sure what that is indicative of. Maybe cleaning the armature would help that situation?
This latest spring is more compliant that the original spring and the first replacement I tried. I also don't think the spring that was on the engine when I got it was the correct one.
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