# Honda EB5000X have to flash every time



## SmallEngineGuy (Apr 10, 2015)

Sorry i have to ask a question on the first post, I promise I will stick around and help out, I've fixed tons of small engines and am an ASE Master Certified Auto Tech so I have a pretty good understanding of how this thing works but im baffled at this point.
Heres the history, I bought this Gen. with a bad engine, it was run out of oil and the rod melted to the crank til it broke, amazingly didnt hurt the block, i cleaned the aluminum off the crank with muriatic acid and only replaced the rod and piston and the engine runs great, blah blah, so once I got it running it wouldnt produce power, I flashed it like everyone says and it made power just fine, checked with meter, 120 volts 60 hertz, fired it up the next day and had to flash again and again and again, so ive done a bunch of research and read about putting a good load on it for a while to rebuild the magnetism in the rotor, so i ran it with a 1500 watt heater a furnace fan blowing on the heater and 2-500 watt halogen flood lamps for a good hour, turned it off waited about 10 seconds, re-started and still NO POWER!! So then, during more troubleshooting I had the meter hooked up to the outlet and was getting about 2 or 3 volts with the engine running and when I shut the engine off I happened to notice that as the engine slowed down, like just before stopping, 60 volts showed up on the meter and dropped along with the rest of the RPM til it stopped, I started it back up and shut it off and when the 60 volts showed up again I flipped the engine switch back on and as the engine started back up from half stopped the voltage came right up to normal, I've done resistance checks on the various different coils and the rotor, the brushes are new, ive put a new honda voltage regulator in it and it still does this.
My questions are,
1. Has anyone else ever seen an issue like this, I assume that me catching the 60 volts as it shut down was a fluke thing and not many other people have probably witnessed that but what are common problems with having to flash every time.
2. I think I read somewhere once that the rotor is supposed to be timed to the engine? Anyone ever heard of that? I'm wondering if harmonics could be bouncing the brushes off the rotor rings? maybe when it slowed down they made just enough contact to get power through?
3. I had the resistance specs last summer but have lost them, does anyone know them off hand, like Rotor, brushes different coils?

Thanks ahead of time to anyone who can help, luckily I made it through this last Iowa winter without any power outages, but now we have a baby in the house and its the begining of storm season so I need to get this thing straightened out.

Just for fun, I will also add that I have a Tri-Fuel kit on this thing, I pieced my own kit togetehr and did my own carb mod to add the fuel tube. I will probably do a thread on that someday.....once it makes reliable power....

Thanks Again


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## Robert Coats (Nov 10, 2011)

Recommend you start with the Honda factory shop manual; it's got extensive troubleshooting procedures, and with a multi-meter and 12V battery, you'll be able to pin-point the true source of the problem(s). 

Most of them are 200 pages, and Honda sell them direct (most are $30-$45) on both eBay and Amazon, free shipping. Worth every penny when trying to do extensive troubleshooting or repairs. Be sure to have the FRAME serial number, as there are different manuals, diagrams, etc. depending on the serial number.










The serial number will be in one of the following formats:

*EA7-1234567 [early production]
EAKC-1234567 [running changes]
EBPC-1234567 [later production]*

Links:
*Honda Power Equipment Shop Manuals on eBay*
*Honda Power Equipment Shop Manuals on Amazon*


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## shadetree77 (Sep 9, 2018)

Hi,

I'm having the same issues as the OP, the generator loses its residual magnetism immediately after shut down. Any troubleshooting tips on this? could it be a capacitor? my unit has a capacitor built into the AVR. Thanks for any responses


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## shadetree77 (Sep 9, 2018)

shadetree77 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm having the same issues as the OP, the generator loses its residual magnetism immediately after shut down. Any troubleshooting tips on this? could it be a capacitor? my unit has a capacitor built into the AVR. Thanks for any responses


Replaced the AVR and the bridge rectifier, sat 12 hours and now power comes straight on. will report in a few days to see if it holds up. I'm assuming something inside the AVR was draining the field charge. Replaced the bridge rectifier because it was rusty on the contacts, still tested good, but they're cheap so i just replaced it.


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## b4hntn (11 mo ago)

New to the forum. Have Coleman Powermate 7000/8750. Starts right up but the delay in producing power has gone from about 3 minutes to 30 minutes. I run it every month or so and plug a heater into each side. When shutting down I unplug and turn fuel off. I only run it no load for just a few minutes. I replaced the brushes which were at about 80% left. No change. I solved the problem by loading to the max with two heaters and two hair dryers for about 15 minutes. Now it produces power in 2-3 minutes again. My perception is the maximum load put a little more residual magnetism in the rotor iron to aid in the power starting to flow. Has original AVR board which held 114.5 v when the 13hp Honda engine seemed wide open. It is fine with me.


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## Dutchy491 (Sep 18, 2019)

Just making sure….. you unplug BEFORE shutting down right? 😉


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## OrlyP (Oct 19, 2021)

b4hntn said:


> New to the forum. Have Coleman Powermate 7000/8750. Starts right up but the delay in producing power has gone from about 3 minutes to 30 minutes. I run it every month or so and plug a heater into each side. When shutting down I unplug and turn fuel off. I only run it no load for just a few minutes. I replaced the brushes which were at about 80% left. No change. I solved the problem by loading to the max with two heaters and two hair dryers for about 15 minutes. Now it produces power in 2-3 minutes again. My perception is the maximum load put a little more residual magnetism in the rotor iron to aid in the power starting to flow. Has original AVR board which held 114.5 v when the 13hp Honda engine seemed wide open. It is fine with me.


I'd say it's quite possible that the original AVR may be on its way out. It shouldn't take 3 seconds for it to make power, much less 3 minutes.






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But first, try adjusting the trimmer pot on the AVR and raise the main stator output voltage to 120-123V. That will increase the voltage gain on the DC output to the brushes, hopefully to help get it to make power sooner.


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