Tecumseh with plastic bowl - if it is flooding, at the bottom of the bowl on the side is a screw. Remove that and inside is a plastic piece, this meters the flow of fuel and if missing can explain flooding. Also carb is extruded aluminum and there is a small hole drilled in it for the bowl to breath, that could be the other cause. Lastly dirt is holding the carb needle open- hold the carb bowl in your hand off the carb and let the gas flow in and see if the bowl overflows while outside the carb. If it only runs for a sec, upon removing the screw from the bowl the plastic piece inside - get a drill and drill it just a hair larger - so far this personaly worked for me 3 for 3 of these. Do this after trying cleaning it out the same piece with a paperclip. Sorry all if parts of my post are a repeat. ihwall50- black smoke, too much gas from dirty air filter, try banging the filter on the street curb knocking dirt loose and try again. if it improves, get a new filter.

I encountered the same condition on a walk-behind rotary mower that belongs to a friend. He said he replaced the fly key, after hitting a brick with it! But, it still snaps the rope back in! So, when he brought it to me--of course, i had to check the fly-key. It was still whole, but still out of time! Only thing i can think--the hitting of a solid object at high RPM's could have twisted the crank-shaft, to put it out of time! I have had other engines just like that problem. What did i do with them? Gave them a nice long ride, in the back of my truck, along with other scrappers! I do not want to advise you to buy and install an expensive crank-shaft. Wait to see what others suggest. But, Don't get yer hopes up! JMHO: Rusty Jones

Beacon : Use a rotating beacon like what construction vehicles use and put a resistor or rheostat in line with the power on the motor so you can slow it down for realism. I would use a low voltage photo cell and possibly replace the bulb with LED's from a place like superbrightleds.com. They should have a compatible led light that will go in the plug or have the things needed to make your own setup. Power: I think a lead acid lawn mower battery (U1L the old bigger battery not a motorcycle style) series and trickle charger would be adequate for the beacon and the lift. IF you go with the LED setup you could charge it via solar panel. Lift : I think a window motor could be adapted and work well or the early to mid 90's rangers and F series trucks had electronic shift on the transfer case for 4x4. It was a starter style motor with gear reduction and stop switches for different ranges and best of all they are fairly well sealed. If you check some of the motorcycle shops you might be able to get a starter from there that has a planetary gear reduction (high torque) that just needs taking apart and given some TLC for little or no money. This would be a pretty compact and rather quiet option. I see both projects as being really cool ideas but the lift might be better to just buy a lift designed for such use and adapting it further for your setup. I would check ebay. OH wait umm what voltage did the old monster satellite dish rotators run off of? That would be by far the easiest to adapt. Either lift or rotate could be used. I like the solar charge with photo cell and LED light idea the best with wire run over to the adapted satellite dish rotator spa cover lift the best!

That's quite a mix of questions you've asked and a lot of them, I'm afraid, can be answered with: "That depends." When you Google the sites about sizing generators, most of them encourage you to add up the wattage of everything you want to run and then use that as your minimum capacity. Except in a narrow band of cases, that's nonsense, of course. You've noted that not everything is on at the same time and it's unlikely that every motor--sump pumps, refrigerator, furnace fan, etc.--will start up at the same instant. Accounting for "diversity"--the probability of different mixes of things being used simultaneously--is a basic when planning capacity. Otherwise, if most people added up the size of every light bulb and electrical device in their house, they'd run out and double or triple their service. The biggest single draw you've listed is the washing machine, which you've designated as "optional", or subject to discretionary management (e.g., maybe don't run it when the sump pumps are working hard and everything else is on). They highest demands would occur when a motor starts up (sometimes requiring 3 or 4 times the rated wattage of the motor), but that is usually covered by the surge capacity of the generator, unless a large motor is being powered. Here, you're probably talking about motors in the range of 1/3 or possibly 1/2 h.p. A 6KW genset ought to be able to handle it. If you want a seat-of-the-pants guestimate, you would probably do just fine with a 5-6KW generator (that's continuous capacity--surge would be a bit higher). I could be convinced that more power is needed if those are exceptionally large sump pumps and are pumping frequently. What concerns me more is the method for connecting the generator to the house power system. The right way to do this (and I'm sure your electrician will confirm this) is to use a transfer switch to isolate utility and generator power. This issue of how you connect the generator to the transfer switch is something you should discuss with the electrician. A 20-25' cord is feasible, yes, if it is a very heavy duty 240V generator cord, made for purpose. I'll skip the question about brand because I don't think it's a proper in a forum of this type to indulge in product endorsements. (That's only my take and others may disagree.) From the specs you've given, I can't see any reason you'd need DC power or an inverter. (The generator already has an inverter built in.) Any good quality generator has a governor that responds to load and consumes less fuel when there is less demand for electricity. A generator under full load will make more noise and use a great deal more fuel under full load. As far as keeping the generator battery charged, there are a couple of approaches. If you are dilligent in starting up and testing your system regularly (some recommend montly), that should keep the battery charged. Another approach, if circumstances permit, is attach the battery to a small, inexpensive solar panel (say, 3 watts) with alligator clips. This isn't enough to charge the battery when if it runs down, but is enough to provide a "float charge" and, at that capacity, it shouldn't require a charge controller. It's about a $30-40 solution.