Diesel Generator

[linus6948]

I have owned this Apache (no longer made) chinese diesel generator for about 10 years now and it has always been a bear to start but it has served me well otherwise running 12hrs on 4 gallons of fuel. It is powered by a chinese clone of the Yanmar 10hp diesel engine and I always saw in the Yanmar manual that there was a decompression lever that was to be pressed before starting. Nothing about that in the Apache owners manual and I never saw it on my unit. It was time for a service on it and this time instead of working on the floor I used my engine hoist to lift it up to eye level.

I got curious and started to remove all the panels I could and after removing the end and using a flashlight and feeling around with my hand where it was shown in the Yanmar manual I located it. I then used a 2 3/8 inch hole-saw and made an access hole from above and now the darn thing starts like a champ. You press the lever down turn the ignition and it fires right off immediately and the lever pops closed automatically. It used to sound like the starter was crying as it used to strain trying to get it to barely spin due to the diesels high compression and now you hardly hear it. I found a cork in my wine making stuff that fit the new access hole perfectly to keep debris out.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xPdB2vjJfDVcszbGA

[Plymouthy Adams]

10 minutes ago, linus6948 said:

I have owned this Apache (no longer made) chinese diesel generator for about 10 years now and it has always been a bear to start but it has served me well otherwise running 12hrs on 4 gallons of fuel. It is powered by a chinese clone of the Yanmar 10hp diesel engine and I always saw in the Yanmar manual that there was a decompression lever that was to be pressed before starting. Nothing about that in the Apache owners manual and I never saw it on my unit. It was time for a service on it and this time instead of working on the floor I used my engine hoist to lift it up to eye level.

I got curious and started to remove all the panels I could and after removing the end and using a flashlight and feeling around with my hand where it was shown in the Yanmar manual I located it. I then used a 2 3/8 inch hole-saw and made an access hole from above and now the darn thing starts like a champ. You press the lever down turn the ignition and it fires right off immediately and the lever pops closed automatically. It used to sound like the starter was crying as it used to strain trying to get it to barely spin due to the diesels high compression and now you hardly hear it. I found a cork in my wine making stuff that fit the new access hole perfectly to keep debris out.

 

 

I HEAR YOU SAYING......they can copy an engine but don't know how to drill a hole...

[linus6948]

It is madness that they made this with no access whatsoever. There was a slew of these made under different names and sold by places like home depot and northern tool. Painted in different colors with different badging but otherwise very similar and none of them had a way to use this decompression lever.

 

http://buffalotools.com/generators/gensd7.html

 

https://www.amazon.com/Pulsar-PG7000D-Diesel-Powered-Generator-Electric/dp/B00EUZWG30/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Edited January 15, 2021 by linus6948

[keithb7]

Cool. Nice work. Nice shop too. I like it!