Frist, I hope you live way far away from anyone else.
Running the generater after 8 PM or so is rather rude. Kids
or people nearby may need the silence to sleep.

That said, the simple things are often what gives trouble.
My gut sense is that the oil level is low. You should drain
the oil, and fill the oil with the reccomended ammount of
oil. The one time I very briefly had a 5500 watt generator,
it took 28 ounces of oil. Use a good brand of oil. This is
no time to save a quarter on cheap junk oil. My favorite
brand is Castrol, others have other favorite brands.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Pavel314" wrote in message
...
I have a 5,500 watt gasoline engine generator that powers
the furnace,
refrigerator and water pump during power outages. It's run
well for
the last 6 or 7 years but has gotten tempermental lately.

During a 36-hour outage last week I ran it the first evening
when the
power went out then turned it off overnight. I started it up
at about
6:00 the next morning and it ran well for a while. At about
10:30, my
wife called me at work to say that the generator shut off.
She
reported that it started running very fast for about a
half-hour, then
quit. I came home at lunch time and it restarted at the
first pull,
running well for the rest of the day and into the next day
when the
power came back on.

Last night there was a very strong wind in the evening.
Right after
dinner, about 7:30, the lights flickered a few times and
went off. We
lit candles and sat by the woodstove for a while, hoping the
power
would be restored quickly. About 9:00, I figured I should
start up the
generator and connect the vital items to the generator
circuit. After
I finished that, I sat down by the woodstove and the lights
went back
on. Not sure if they'd stay on, I decided to let the
generator run and
went to bed. I woke up at 11:30 to find that the generator
had gone
off. I repluged everything into the house circuit and went
back to
bed.

I plan to tune up the engine on the generator this weekend;
replace
all filters, gap the plug, etc. Does anybody have any ideas
on what
might be causing these shut-offs?

Paul