Knowing nothing about the condition of this engine and generator head, I decided to just dive in and start fixing things, with the magneto being first on the list, as usually the magneto is the most trouble-prone component on these old engines. This Wico Type C magneto has a unique cap that is missing its metal cover and I can't find a replacement online. I may have to resort to making one.
The magneto cam is rusty on the end but fortunately the lobe area that rubs on the points block stayed clean.
The points contacts had green crust on them.
The points are labeled Wico, so they might be original to the engine.
Once the magneto was back together, it produced a nice blue spark. You can barely see it on the video screen grab below.
Next I pulled off the air cleaner oil bath cup to try and get some starter fluid into the carburetor. Water had been in here but fortunately there wasn't any rust-through. I did get some starter fluid into the carb and the engine produced a tiny pop but it seemed there wasn't much compression.
With no compression in the engine, I pulled the valve tappet inspection plate off the block. The exhaust valve was stuck open. I was able to coax the valve free after several minutes of up and down tapping.
Next was the fuel system. The sediment bowl was coated with varnished gas goo. As I later found out, I should have pulled the whole sediment bowl assembly off to clean it...
The carburetor was in pretty good shape, just needing some cleaning up.
After the carb was back on the engine, I pulled the crankcase fill plug and oil came out, indicating there was too much of something in the crankcase, and I guessed that it was probably water. I pulled the drain plug and, yep, there be some water in there...
After everything was back together, the generator started and ran, but it occasionally quit. It seemed like a fuel issue so I pulled off the sediment bowl cap and found a chunk of crud in the pipe above the bowl cap. The large chunk is seen to the left of the bowl cap.
Once the generator was running fine, I put a load on it but it didn't keep the RPM where it should have been, so I put a heavier spring on the governor, which initially seemed to fix the issue but I realized it didn't and I put a lighter spring in. The matter is still open for debate. I also read up on which hole the spring needs to be in on the lever. I have it in the third hole and it needs to be moved to the first or second hole for the ~2600 RPM it needs to run at.
The generator end cover was removed to check the condition of wiring and brushes.
Spiders. Lots of spiders have been in here. Or maybe just one or two really busy spiders.
One wire came loose when I was pulling out the spider webs and wasp nests. I didn't bother putting on a new connector but just screwed this one back in place, as it will probably hold up fine.
Below is a video link of the entire rework process on the generator.
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