OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics True Testament to a Honda Engine

Hi All,

Now this story starts way back in 1972 when my Father was a Carpenter on the housing side of building.
This was about the time when power tools were starting to make an appearance on the building sites way before how things are now.

Being a chippie on the sites was rather interesting to say the least, swinging hammers and using hand saws to cut all timbers being used, not drop saws and nail guns as they are used now.

My father had an early generator but it wasn't all that reliable so he was on the lookout for a replacement. I still remember jumping into the new HG Holden Wagon that dad bought the year before to replace the aging FC Panel Van which wasn't that family friendly with 2 adults and myself along with my new baby brother. I used to sit on the tool box behind the front seat and had a great view of the road ahead while the bassinet sat on the front seat with Mum hanging on to it.

Anyway any chance to go for a ride in the new wheels was fantastic.

So up to a suburb called Clearview we went to look at a replacement Generator that was advertised in the classifieds in Saturday's "Advertiser" newspaper.

My dad was just like me, always looking for a bargain and after he looked at this Honda powered EG-1500U generator he knew he had scored well.

The Genny was always in the back of the HG wagon and put out on site each morning and one pull had it purring most of the day to run both his circular saw and trenching machine that chippies no longer use due to slackness.

Well my Father passed away 3 days after Elvis did in 1977 and up to that date that Honda never missed a beat. Sadly most of dads tools were either retired off or split between my brother and myself.The only thing that sat in the back corner of dads newly built workshop that he never really got to use was this unloved Honda Generator.

Well the years went by and I had moved out of home and worked in the Photographic game from 1984 through til 1992 for the Department of Defence and I got rather friendly with the guys in the Documentary Film Unit and thus I got to work on many of their film sets taking the stills as is done in most film making projects.

The youngest guy in that unit was also a bit of a young budding film maker and did quite a few short films (like Tropfest Films) outside of work.

One day in the tea room Tim happened to be talking about this film clip that he was about to make for a local Adelaide band called "The Exploding White Mice", but his only issue was lack of 240 volts to run the lights and other gear in a moving car scene he was to film around the old Woolstores in Port Adelaide.

I jokingly suggested using my HG Wagon (that I inherited from Dad)and run a generator sitting on the folded down back seat right behind me with the RHR door open so that the exhaust fumes could escape without affecting me and also dropping the tailgate to use as a filming platform and support the lighting equipment to stand on while we were moving.

What a great idea Tim shouted, lets do it.

So I went back to my Dads workshop and dug out the Honda which hadn't been fired up for 9 years and I felt it was going to take that length of time to get it going again. I poured about 2 litres of fuel into it and turned on the fuel tap, pushed the choke lever down and gave it one pull on the pull starter rope.............................it fired up on first pull ????????

I rang Tim and said I'm good with the Genny and he organised the band for that same night and we did the whole film clip until 5 in the morning. The Honda didn't flinch one bit apart from me having to add a bit more fuel halfway through the shoot.

From there onwards the Honda stayed in my care and diddn't reappear until 2003 when ETSA (electricity company in SA) decided to bring in load sharing and cut our power every night around 6.55pm and it didn't resume until around 10.15 on the same night. This wasn't that much of an issue, but they did it when the temperature was around 38 degrees and try sleeping on a totally windstill night at that temperature. I'd had enough by the 3rd night and got up out of bed at 9.00pm and went out to the garage and dragged out the Honda and a long extension cord so that it would reach the Air Conditioner.
Again a litre of fuel, turn on the tap, push the choke down and half throttle...................and you guessed it, one pull and away she went. Sadly all I had was that one lousy litre of fuel, but boy did that AC feel good for the hour until the power came back on.

Fast forward to 2016 and 5 Transmission towers got either ripped out of the ground or snapped like carrots up at Pt. Augusta on the 28th of September which tripped the "Interconnect" between SA and Victoria plunging our whole state into darkness. I'm sure you would've seen this on the News services around Australia and had a good ol' laugh at South Australia. We were being told that the possibility of no power for up to 8 hours was highly on the cards. Well 5 house moves later since the Honda was last used, but yes I did give it an oil change after it's last usage and I pulled it out of the back of my workshop and set it up outside the back sliding door, poured in the regimental 1 litre of fuel and you know the rest ! it ran just about most of the night with a top up of fuel until power was restored keeping our two fridge / freezers going and our Tele going via an inline AC power regulator so as to avoid any power variation to Electronic equipment.
We certainly had a few jealous neighbours that's for sure as the rest of the street was plunged into darkness with no sight or sound equipment running as we are all so accustomed to.

So........... I have to say that I swear by Honda engines, this EG-1500U unit is a testament to the fabulous engineering that has gone into Honda power plants over the years, especially the carburetor side of things, see if you get that sort of reliability with an earlier Briggs and Stratton engine and their temperamental carby diaphragms that require replacing every few years.

I don't think so !

I've never owned such a reliable piece of equipment that's never let me down in our darkest times for so many years without doing anything more than an oil change.


He are a couple of snaps that I took of it yesterday.




I'm on the lookout for 4 new rubber feet for it. That's the least I can do for a good reliable friend in my hours of need.

Get some shock absorber rubbers from your nearest auto parts place I reckon. Nice story.

top story there BB proof that those thing just keep on going huh , DAD must have looked after it too . ran it out of fuel always .

Dave

Hello BB and Members

Yes BB, a great story and 'true' testament to Honda engines,
and 'spinning gennies'! Personal stories are exciting, and
you told a cracker!

I can envisage you on the front lawn, looking down the street,
cocking a snoot at the neighbours, as the Honda continued its steady
and electrically charged rhythm of residential pride as the lights
flickered and then were extinguished at other residences.

Luckily, in Tasmania, we shun electrical apparatus as works of Satan.

. . .

This story is also a true testament to one of the advantages of gravity-feed
fuel bowl carburetors. They have advantages; but limitations too.

As vccomm said, new, fresh fuel introduced to a long-sitting engine,
that had been run-out, or flushed of old fuel, is a clear advantage for engines
stored for a long period.

The Briggs carby, of the pulsa-jet design, had the disadvantage of
storing potential stale fuel in a pump reservoir, that gave a time delay
in changing angles of engine operation that might be encountered in the field.
But the small reservoir is not readily flushable.

This is not a reflection on poor design, but the reality of particular designs.
I would not describe them as temperamental though. I found them ultra reliable.

The irony with Briggs is that, for most small engines, they
offered a flo-jet carby option (more expensive). Many manufacturers chose
to go for the cheaper option though ... the pulsa-jet - or vacu-jet.

The moral of this great story - for me - engine application and
intended frequency of use should be paramount.

All very Honda.
-----------------------
Jack

G'day BB et al,

Firstly, your right, It is worth reflecting that as recently as the seventies buildings were often largely put together with hand tools.

Secondly, allow me to share my own emergency generator story. We were faced with impending floods in 2011 and duly purchased a new generator with electronic governing, load sensing and other intelligent design features. It served me well in that emergency and in a couple of other power blackouts as well. In early 2015 we were then to be subjected to a cyclone and the genie was pulled out and confirmed to run. Cyclone came and went and the entire district was without power. It was then that I discovered the thing woundnt take a load. The sensing was acting up. I tried for hours to get a result but the electronics beat me. Understand that I'm rural and that no electricity also meant no water or sewage pumping.

The neighbour offered me a spare generator he had based on a very old robin engine that would start but not run, this was an easy fix- a blocked main jet! It kept me in essentials and cold beer for a week! In payment, I provided him with fuel as all the servos were without power and I had a large supply at work.

The moral of the story for me is that equipment that is supposed to be reliable in an emergency situation needs to be designed as such and needs to be repairable in emergency situations which means less technology, not more.

My hat off to you, your Old Man and the little gennie. May she provide years of reliability yet and be allowed a dignified retirement after that.

Cheers,

Hi prd,

It's great to share great stories around, sadly the world is full of doom and gloom and it's nice to hear something a tad brighter nowadays.

Cheers,
BB.

i remember it well doom and gloom , i had the same here to with that blackout , i got a knock on the door because my lights were on . and he heared music ..... got a tad grumpy and asked me to turn off my old P.O.S scorpian cheapy geny lol . as the 2Tnoise was annoying him .

so you know me sometimes i am NOT polite .

(but it was running on old fuel for a while . 5 years and still has the TORCH s/plug hahaha

There's always one jealous so and so in every street.

I bet had you invited him in for a beer his tune would've changed instantly.

Yup, and not always just one.
The thing that struck me during the cyclone was that so many people in this town (and I mean a disturbingly large number) showed their worst colours during the loss of power after the cyclone. So many people reverted to winging and niggling about the discomfort- and there was heaps. No power for almost two weeks for some of us, some of the most foul humid hot weather imaginable and no way to keep beer (or anything) cold, food going off, struggle everywhere. Even the local ice works were off line. Cold food and ale was at a premium. But so many chose to bitch and blame! It was unbelievable.

I was standing in line at dan murphys with a warm carton of ale (even DM only had generator power for essentials and not refrigeration) which the faithful gene was going to cool for me and a lady was a couple before me in the queue beefing about how she was having to buy this bottle of Bundy rum and the get a bottle of cold coke from the local woollies, which did have generator power for refrigeration (but not airconditioning) and that would have to do. What she really wanted was cold beer but couldn't cool it.
At this point she swung round, glared at me and declared to the whole crowd that, ''It must be ok for some!!' Apparently it was completely unfair that I'd gotten a generator going and was apparently living the life!
If she hadn't made such a song and dance I might have felt sorry for her.

Problem is, there was such a large proportion of people behaving in a similar way!

Cheers,

Just out of interest I found the film clip of the Adelaide based band, "The Exploding White Mice" doing the song "Fear" which the driving bits were shot out of the back of my Holden wagon with the generator running. All the other old XL "Falcon" shots which are towards the end of the song were done with the lighting power coming from the Honda, in the darkness of "Crozier Street" Port Adelaide, between the old woolstores.

BTW the music is not my flavour, but it might interest someone. Don't go there Jack as I know what your response will be.

Cheers,
BB.

I'm on the lookout for 4 new rubber feet for it. That's the least I can do for a good reliable friend in my hours of need.
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Hi BB and all
The next time you wander into a bearing place take one of your rubber feet with you and see if they can sort you out with a compatible set of vibration eliminators.....for this is what they are
Good luck and thanks for sharing the story
Joe