Folx,
could use some help. I bought a Harbor Freight generator
Over the years I bought and happily used lots of HF equipment, never a problem.
The gen #1 just wouldn't run steady. The RPMs would go all over the place and after ~30 seconds of run time it would shut down. Never got to placing any load on it. Choke in/out, didn't matter. Used "plus" gas, no additives, 5-30 synthetic oil. Exchanged.
#2 took forever to start, but then she ran fairly steady for may be 5 mins, with choke half-way, no load, before self-turning off. Ever since, can not get it started, not even a single spark. Hand-cranking or using electric battery. She's got plenty of oil, there's gas in sediment cup below gas shut-off valve. I verified the gas is flowing freely to the carb. Blew some compressed air through the carb's supply inlet, air moved freely. Spark plug wire on nice and tight. No loose connectors, of any sort, that I could see.
Removed air filter housing, looked at the carb, it looked good enough to me, albeit in the dark I could not see much.
Its late and I don't have a spark plug wrench to eliminate spark plug as a possible culprit.
The generator is an identical-looking copy of Honda's EM 6500 generator at 1/5 of the price :) .
Will look at the spark plug, may be get some carb cleaner.
Before I return #2 :) , is there anything else I should look at ?