hi guys welcome back to my small engine repair channel today i want to show you one of the most
common reasons why generators don't start when they come in my shop and the tip i will give you
today has nothing to do with bad gas so what i'll do is i'll get straight to the point here and that
major reason is because of a small sensor and on this generator here the sensor is located right
here it's bolted on the recoil cowling it's just a small metal box like this with a few wires going
to it and sometimes it might be bolted on the engine down here or on the side of the panel so
if you can't locate that little metal box find the wire that comes out of your crankcase like this
it's going to connect to another wire and then what you want to do is follow that wire and it
will lead you to that box so what that little metal box is is a low oil shut off sensor so if
the oil gets too low in your generator it will automatically shut the machine off and i've got
another one here in my hand it's basically just two wires going to that little sensor you can get
these from a honda dealer or online amazon or ebay and they're fairly inexpensive if you buy
the aftermarket versions they're usually under 10 bucks if you buy the real honda ones they
will obviously cost you a little more money so as you can see if you've got a sensor that will
automatically turn your machine off if it runs out of oil it's a good thing because then you won't
blow your motor however the reason i'm making the video today is because i get a lot of customers
come in the shop they bring their generators and they say it was running all of a sudden it stopped
i put more gas in it i tried to start it and it won't go so what i often see happen is that
people forget to check the oil level in their generator when they put gas in it now one of the
main reasons for that is some people have a hard time to locate where to check the oil on their
generators if you're not sure what you need to do is go underneath the panel and look for a dipstick
or an oil cap like this unscrew it now you can leave a rag underneath because sometimes the
oil will drip just like you did now so for this generator for example when i took the dipstick out
it was reading right up to the top almost with oil now your dipstick will vary from generator
to generator you just want to make sure you have the proper level of oil in there so as you can see
in this generator the oil is right to the top it's dripping a bit when you take the cap off
so this generator would never shut off because it's low in oil so i'll just put this back in
now having said that the generator will not shut off as long as it's got enough oil
but also if that little sensor is actually working so sometimes i get customers they've actually
checked the oil they've filled it and the machine still won't start and it's all because the small
low oil shut off sensor is defective and if this small sensor is defective what's going to happen
is you will not have any spark at your spark plug now most people won't be able to figure that out
but sometimes i do get customers they bring the generator in and they tell me the generator has
no spark and oftentimes they'll have gone in under here replace the spark plug put a new one in and
there's still no spark and again it's all because of this low oil shut off sensor now if that's what
you're coming across and you're in the middle of a hurricane or something you've got no power you
don't have time to take it to a shop the next step i'm going to show you may just get your machine
back up and running and this tip guys is probably the best tip of this whole video so this happens
to you guys you're stuck i got to get my generator going because i've got no spark had the spark plug
the oil is filled i think it's a bad sensor all you need to do is follow the wire from the crank
case which goes to the oil sensor and all you have to do is disconnect it and this will make the low
oil sensor obsolete and your machine will start up again it's that simple now if you disable that
sensor guys you must remember that if it does get low in oil the machine will not shut off and your
engine will end up burning itself out but at least if you're in the middle of a storm and you've got
no power your power will be restored because that generator will fire up just keep in mind when you
check the fuel check the oil at the same time if you've disabled that sensor and once you're done
using the generator make sure to just reorder a new sensor and replace it and fill up your oil
again and basically you will not cause any damage to the engine as long as it's running with engine
oil in it it's as soon as it runs out of oil if you haven't checked it you're in big trouble now
the only time i recommend to do this guys is if you're in a pinch and you've got no power and it's
the only way to get your machine going up again but otherwise always keep that sensor plugged in
and almost every time we get a storm here and the power's out i usually get a customer or two that
will call me and this is the first thing i tell them to check and sometimes i even recommend to
them to disconnect that sensor and if it runs then that's the problem but to keep a close
eye on the oil level so i hope this is a good tip for you guys bookmark the video because
you never know when you'll have to do this to your generator make sure to thumbs up the video
subscribe and follow me on social media all the links are below the video and have a great day you