# Portable Generator starts, sputters, dies



## ndtrek07 (Sep 8, 2020)

Looking for some troubleshooting suggestions. I'm no mechanic, but felt handy _enough_ to attempt a carburetor jet replacement on my own.

This is (was) a brand new Pulsar Generator (pg12000b). Before fueling or oiling it up for the first time, I ordered the high altitude kit, which consists of just a new "high altitude" main jet and a handful of replacement seal rings. 









After replacing the original main carburetor jet with the "high altitude" jet, I can't get the engine to start. To be fair, I hadn't tried to start the generator _before_ replacing the jet, mostly because I didn't want to add oil and fuel only to drain them right away.

Here's what I did:

Pulsar has a youtube video showing how to remove the carburetor, which was pretty straight forward.





Pulsar doesn't, however, provide instructions for replacing the jet (other than "Contact your authorized dealer or repair shop").

Other generator manufactures do provide instructions. A pulsar tech suggested I might find youtube videos showing how to do the replacement, and this seemed to be pretty similar, so this is basically the procedure I followed:





Everything seemed to go smoothly. I didn't replace any of the seal rings, as everything was brand new. After replacing the jet and re-attaching the carburetor, I added oil and gas, and attempted to start it.

The first time it would not start. I used the electric start, and it would not turn over. Crank-crank-crank-crank-crank-crank, but would not start. Tried a few times (letting it rest in between) with the same result. I let it sit for a while, checked to make sure fuel shut-offs were not closed (they were open), then tried again. This time it started, but sputtered and ran pretty rough for a few seconds. Then it seemed to run ok for a couple seconds, then slowly sputtered and died. Tried again with the same results. Choke open/closed did not make a difference (only mentioning because "it only runs with choke closed" is apparently a problem folks run into sometimes, based on what came up when googling _my_ problem).

I'm not sure what to try next....Taking the carburetor back apart and removing and re-inserting the jet? Nothing looked out of place when I did the jet replacement, but certainly could have been something I didn't know to look for or recognize. If there's something else to try first before I drain oil/gas to remove the carburetor again, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

Any suggestions on next troubleshooting steps?


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## JohnNY (Apr 27, 2020)

When you took the bowl off the carb, did the needle valve fall out or the float drop down?


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

sooo
a few questions
what is the altitude where you are working on this??
the high alt jet leans out the engine.
so yes it may not run below the 4k altitude at least without the choke to over fuel it a bit.

try it again with the stock jet and see if it runs then
break it in first.. run it for at least 25 hours.
change the oil at 10 hours first break in.
and wait till you get in the over 5k feet mountains to re jet to the high alt lean jet.


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## ndtrek07 (Sep 8, 2020)

Thanks guys:
@iowagold , I neglected to note that I'm installing the high altitude jet because I am already at altitude : My house is at ~8,000 feet.

@JohnNY, the needle did not fall out, nor did it drop (that I noticed).


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## iowagold (Jan 22, 2020)

ahhhh
lol
wow on the 8k up!!
god is your neighbor!!
lol!
hummm
how far is it to get down to lets say 3000 feet?
you might put back in the stock jet and go to a low alt and then check it there first...
before you change any thing try it will the gas cap loose.
just to make sure the gas tank is venting right.

at high alt the gens run super rich as the air is less dense..
so did they also change the idle air jet to larger?
all i saw in the kit pix was the main run fuel jet..

does your carb have an idle mixture screw that you can turn?
it needs to be at 3/4 of a turn open or less for low alt.
most are set at 2 turns from the factory.

i am suspect of the electric coil valve for the main fuel jet shut off...
you need to verify that it is working right...
it seats on the new jet..
if the jet is the wrong one it will not fuel right!!
it acts like the jet and fuel valve is not opening if you have to choke it to keep running....


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