An expensive user error....

Today I had to pay the piper.  And I will have to pay the piper next spring as well.  But tiday my user error cost me $213.31.

Living in Southeastern Pennsylvania, the last several days have been revolving around the weather and the impending arrival... of all things.... a hurricane.  Just a few days ago there was just normal fall weather.  Suddenly there was Tropical  Storm Joaquin.  And almost as suddenly it was a Category 1, then 3 and now 4.  The forecasters could not agree on his track because of all of the many variables.

So, being the think ahead and be prepared person that I am, on Wednesday I headed outside to make sure that the generator would be ready in case we lost power.  But to my dismay, it did not want to start.  Eventually it turned over but it would only run with the choke either fully on or about half.

I called Danny and he made some suggestions, so I added some carburetor cleaner, got it to run and let it run for a while.  Did not change anything.  It just was acting like it was not getting fuel.

Thursday morning, I went to try it again and now it was not starting at all.  God bless Danny, he and Marji came up and he spent a couple of hours working on things.  The spark plug was fouled, so he cleaned that.  We could get it to run, but only with the choke on.  He was not comfortable fiddling around with the carburetor.

So I called the Westpro company, the makers of the unit and they gave me the name of two repair centers in the area.  The closest one was in Downingtown.  I called Yerkes Repair and spoke to the owner, Bill. He asked if I could get the unit to him and I said, while I had a truck, I was a widow, living alone, etc.  So he said they could pick it up.  They would be here first thing in the morning.

Not exactly first thing, but they did have an older gentleman here around 9:30 AM.  He loaded it into the van and off he went.  I asked, as he was shutting the doors on the van if he had a time frame that it would be fixed, and he said 'no', and left.

I had to just settle in and worry if I would be seeing it anytime soon.  Even though Joaquin was going to stay out in the Atlantic after all of the drama, we were still getting some nasty weather from a couple of systems that could still have the power going out.  And the reviews for this company indicated that they were slow to get things done, with no responses on the phone.  So I was a tad worried.  But they had been very responsive thus far and had communicated very well.

But I set about my day, clearing my dining room table and getting some things straightened up.  I had a crock pot roast cooking.  I had just checked it with about an hour or so before it might be finished when the phone rang.  It was Bill Yerkes.  The generator was finished and could they come bring it back.  I said, certainly and the same gentleman returned it and muscled it back onto the deck.

They had replaced the spark plug, de-gunked the carburetor and did some sort of power steam in it and freed a frozen selinoid.  The ethanol that is being added in the gasoline these days, if it remains in the carburetor causes a varnish to coat the inside.  They said it was really bad.  The manufacturer said to store it with no gas in it.  The repair man said all I have to do is close the gas flow valve and let the motor run out of gas.  This will keep the gas from lingering in the carburetor.

So, I am back in business.  I will follow the directions and be hopeful that I will not have any problems in the future.  If not, I know who to call.  And I did not think that the $200+ toll was too bad, considering they also picked up and delivered it back to me repaired in just one day.

So, next spring, I will have to get a new carburetor for my lawn tractor, get it replaced and put a shut off valve between the gas tank and the engine, so I can do the same thing with it.  It was running badly the last time I ran it.....!  I am learning things that Rudy knew but never shared with me.  But I am understanding more and more!