Got a free Honda EX1000 and finally got it running. This is the older, regular generator model, not the inverter model.
Anyway, the generator has no output. What is odd, is if I hook up an electric drill and an incandescent bulb (in parallel), the bulb will light when I run the drill, then dim and go out when I let off the trigger. I thought maybe the field windings had lost their magnetism. I tried two different methods of re-energizing the field windings. One involved a double male cheater cord with two 60W lamps in series on the hot wire, and plugged into a wall outlet. The other was hooking a 12V car battery across the main winding at the outlet, pulling the spark plug wire and pulling the start cord a few times. Neither worked.
I have a copy of the manual here in PDF
Owners Manual
On page 36 it shows a condenser winding and a condenser. Does this have anything to do with maintaining a magnetic field on the field windings?
I'm in a little above my head here, but does it sound like I have diagnosed this right? and any ideas how to get output out of this thing, or what to check next?
Thanks.