In my previous post, I questioned whether the lower governor bell crank should give full rack travel if the engine is stopped. Since I just discovered a post on how to adjust the governor linkage I carefully did that, then oiled every bit of linkage and fired her up. We'll soon find out if that governor is working or not. Hey, no guts no glory right?
Because it was cold, it hunted a bit then settled down to a fairly steady beat. Adjusted the speed to produce 125 volts and plugged in a 1500 watt heater. Voltage dropped to 112. Plugged in another heater...1000 watts. Voltage dropped to 105. This was at the limit of my 2500 watt military surplus generator but just for giggles I plugged in a 1/2" drill and pulled the trigger. Voltage dropped to 90-100 with the ammeter showing a 22 amp load.......and the 20 amp circuit breaker didn't pop! The engine was working now but still putting out useable power. I then unplugged one of the heaters........and things started to happen!
The rpms increased rapidly and showed no sign of being controlled, so I hit the fuel cut off and brought everything to a screeching halt....literally.....seems I forgot to grease my generator bearings. Got the grease gun and pumped in several shots so things quieted down. Brand new bearings too........idiot.
Why the lack of governor control though? Well, I had changed out the governor spring based on the post that suggested the ones from Home Depot. The original was still laying in my roll around tool cart, so I removed the new spring and reinstalled the factory one. Backed off the speed control and started it up again. Brought the speed up to produce 125 volts again and started plugging in heaters. First heater dropped the voltage to 115, second one to 108-110. Pulled the trigger on the 1/2" drill and the volts dropped to 100 (the drill can pull up to 7 amps loaded), and I was pulling 22 amps at that voltage. I shut off the drill and then unplugged the first heater. Voltage went back to 115. Unplugged the second heater and the voltage returned to 125. The voltage "wavers" slightly due to the engine pulses, but holds reasonably close. Evidently my engine prefers the factory spring.
I have NO idea what the frequency is because my reed type meter had ALL reeds vibrating! Guess I'd better go to a digital type instead.
These engines are definitely individuals and tinkering is mandatory. That's okay though, as I enjoy fiddling with something until I get it right. I still have work to do on my cooling system and some other minor things but basically the beast produces useable power. I'll tweak and improve it over time. Oh, my I beam frame is a little bit light and I can feel the engine pulses in the concrete garage slab even though it's on heavy casters.
What a machine......I'm hooked!