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I picked up this motor on a 7,000w Dayton generator at an estate sale. It was still in the box so never been used. It was manufactured in 1999 I believe or close to that.

I did a quick look at the carburetor and all the seals look fine. I have a rebuild kit if I can even get that far. I put a little gas in the tank. I put oil in the motor. I hooked up a lawn and garden battery that holds voltage until you try to crank with it, then drops about half charge if you try to crank with it. I pulled the plug to see if I had any spark, but I didn't. I know the battery has a dead cell but I should still be able to pull the crank on the engine to at least get a spark. Everything looks fine, I mean it has never been started so of course it looks fine.

What am I missing? I usually can get small engines to crank without a problem. This one is giving me issues.

May sound dumb but is the generator turned on. That generator may have a kill switch on the engine but could also have a second one on the generator panel also.

ILENGINE said:

May sound dumb but is the generator turned on. That generator may have a kill switch on the engine but could also have a second one on the generator panel also.

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I almost felt stupid there because my last generator had a switch on the generator also. I looked this one does not. The manual says this engine has a low oil engine shut down. I am wondering how I check to see if that is working or not. I do not see anything else that could cause it to not spark. I verified the engine kill switch is not bad, checked that power is making it to the starter, even though the starter should not effect the spark when you pull the rope. It looks like I am going to have to do what I have been hoping I would not.. Pull the gas tank off the top, and start checking everything.

I would probably remove the blower housing, disconnect the kill wire on the ignition module, toss the blower housing back on and see if it has spark. No spark bad module.

If the battery drops below 10VDC when you try to start the engine, you are going to have to get a new battery before you can diagnose your problem. A bad battery likes to hide other problems.

rwag77 said:

I almost felt stupid there because my last generator had a switch on the generator also. I looked this one does not. The manual says this engine has a low oil engine shut down. I am wondering how I check to see if that is working or not. I do not see anything else that could cause it to not spark. I verified the engine kill switch is not bad, checked that power is making it to the starter, even though the starter should not effect the spark when you pull the rope. It looks like I am going to have to do what I have been hoping I would not.. Pull the gas tank off the top, and start checking everything.

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Pull the wire connected to the low oil sensor and check for spark. Put wire back on low oil sensor and check for spark.

Update: I got it started. I still had no spark when disconnecting the ignition module wire. At first, I was like what is going on here? That has always gotten me a spark if the spark plug is good. Then I looked at the flywheel. Like I said this engine is 25 years old, and the generator had never been taken out of the box it came in, yet, it had been kept in a moldy basement. The flywheel had no signs of wear but did have like an oxidized layer. Grabbed some fine sandpaper. Sanded off the oxidation and started 1st pull.

Problem solved, good job!

did not know a fine layer would do that. Thanks!

rwag77 said:

The flywheel had no signs of wear but did have like an oxidized layer. Grabbed some fine sandpaper. Sanded off the oxidation and started 1st pull.

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Old post but rust slash corrosion has nothing to do with magnetism. Doubt this was the real non start cause.

The only thing that stop magentism is distance.