# Troy-Built 5550 Generator Issue?



## phase short (Mar 10, 2019)

Greetings All,

New here so, bound to make a few mistakes..

Problem;
I am an electrician by trade and never really had to work in any respect with generators....

1)..A short time ago, I acquired a *Troy-Built portable generator model 5550.*...

2)...This genset has a *horizontal Briggs and Stratton 10 HP* gasoline powered engine.

3)...The gentleman I acquired it from had installed a *new carb* prior to my purchase. When I examined it at home, I found that the *voltage(s) are correct as well as freq*....What I also noticed is that* the idle screw does not "rest" against it's "stop" making any idle adjustment almost impossible.*

I have endeavored looking for the *governor adjustment *for my specific unit/engine but, came up relatively empty-handed.... I am also not sure if this generator is supposed to run at 3600 rpms (+/-) 100% of the time or, idles at a much lower rpm (maybe half as much?) in a no-load situation...

I am rather timid in screwing around with the governor adjustment simply because I do not want to break it OR get it in a state where it is incorrect and I wouldn't be able to return it to pre-adjustment.

Please find attached info I dug up in the form of pictures.....Seems to look a lot like mine however, I do not have a throttle lever, only a choke lever.

Can anyone here assist me in this? I can leave it at a full load rpm 3600 rpms (+/-) but, that will just induce additional premature wear.


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## RedOctobyr (Aug 8, 2018)

Welcome to the forum! I was trying to find a manual for your generator, is this yours? 

https://www.searspartsdirect.com/manual/51utm48b0v-001307

I don't see it mention idle-control, which is one term for the feature that slows the engine down when there is *no* electrical load. Which makes me think that yours doesn't have this feature, and simply runs at full speed all the time. It would need to have a switch to control that feature. If it doesn't have such a switch, it probably just runs at full speed. 

When I had that type of generator, I was using it for home backup power, and I didn't find the auto-idle feature to be all that critical. It's nice for warming up the engine, or cooling down before shutdown. But as soon as *any* electrical load is applied, even 1 light bulb, it needs to go back to full speed, 3600RPM, in order to produce 60 Hz power. 

So at least for powering the house, it spends almost all its time running at full speed anyhow, as soon as you connect it to your house loads. It would be different if using it for intermittent loads, like just running a circular saw, away from AC power. 

So it's sounding to me like yours is working fine, and doesn't need any changes.


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## phase short (Mar 10, 2019)

*Thanks for the reply...*

I don't see it mention idle-control, which is one term for the feature that slows the engine down when there is *no* electrical load. 
*correct, there is none.*

Which makes me think that yours doesn't have this feature, and simply runs at full speed all the time. 
*correct again, but I thought it did that automatically via governor - no load maybe 1800rpm and full load via governor 3600rpm....I stand corrected.*

It would need to have a switch to control that feature. If it doesn't have such a switch, it probably just runs at full speed. 
*apparently so, such as my other generator.*

When I had that type of generator, I was using it for home backup power, and I didn't find the auto-idle feature to be all that critical. It's nice for warming up the engine, or cooling down before shutdown. But as soon as *any* electrical load is applied, even 1 light bulb, it needs to go back to full speed, 3600RPM, in order to produce 60 Hz power. 
*that is what my other generator did/does...i though that this would do the same...my other generator does have an AVR though.*

So at least for powering the house, it spends almost all its time running at full speed anyhow, as soon as you connect it to your house loads. It would be different if using it for intermittent loads, like just running a circular saw, away from AC power. 
*and again, this runs 3600 rpm 62hz all the time.*

So it's sounding to me like yours is working fine, and doesn't need any changes.
*a-ok*


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