Who knows about 5.5 hp governor Honda power??

-

mopar56

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2014
Messages
1,075
Reaction score
552
Location
Vancouver island British Columbia
  • Ok, guys this is FAR from a Mopar question but honestly some of the best advice given is on here and I know some of you gearheads own these. So here it goes, I'm working on a 5.5 Honda GX160 Honda motor that it's idle is controlled by a governor. It powers a " made in USA Emglo air compressor I believe it to be a decent quality unit. Oddly enough it was included in the purchase of my house five years ago that was used to build my house but the previous owner had no plans on using. I thought maybe one day I would but honestly its been five years so it's time to go. The PO told me it had carb issues so I rebuilt it about 4 years ago but never fired it up or even put fuel in it. So last week I fuel it up and she starts on the second pull but revs high and blows out a copper air line at the compression fitting. So I replace the air line and try again. Once again she starts first pull this time but the idle is screaming and I can't get it down. A few attempts more, a little interweb research etc. But same issue. I play around a bit today and discover that if I remove a spring off the governor arm it seems to work and run ok but there is clearly a spot on the arm for a spring. Maybe I assembled something incorrectly 4 years ago i really cant remember or find photos which i usually take? I'll include some pictures and maybe someone can spot something I don't. Thanks as always for the help.

20240903_143226.jpg


20240903_132546.jpg


20240903_132452.jpg


20240903_132527.jpg


20240903_132529.jpg


20240903_132552.jpg


20240903_132657.jpg


20240903_133124.jpg


20240903_134223.jpg


20240903_143218.jpg
 
not sure if this is the same version as yours but the basic engine. sounds like the governor has come undone.
had a vertical shaft mulcher that had same start up problem, zero to redline. took apart, if I remember correctly a part was loose or
disconnected from the shaft that went thru the crankcase. Hope the picture/parts diagram helps!
 
Emglo is a pretty solid manufacturer....maybe they have website or other support for the motor. I would think Honda documentation would be easy enough to find too....but you wanna make sure the model number is exact.
 
I have serviced dozens, and dozens of those and hundreds if you include all the other governed small engines. I know I could fix yours, probably in seconds if it was in front of me, assuming the governor is still intact inside the engine, which since it's a honda, I do not doubt that it is.
I am not saying I can help you from this side of the keyboard, But I can try.
Ok so first things first ; Engine OFF, check the oil level !, lol.
Then; put all the springs back where you found them and show me the pictures, and I'll try to make sure you have them in the right places. I think they only fit one way.
next;
Close the throttle, and look down the carb, to be sure the throttle valve is Fully closed and that it is NOT loose on the throttle-shaft, and is not hanging up in the bore. If it is not, fully closed, I bet you tightened that little black plastic screw on the side, as far as it goes lol. So go back it off until ONLY 1/8th of an inch of plastic is visible, protruding out the back of the aluminum lug. This is your idle-speed screw. It serves double duty to hold the Idle jet in the passage. and If you were to take that Jet outta there, you would find two very tiny O-rings on the shaft of it, that seal the transfer passage to and from the low-speed circuit. But I'm not concerned about that so leave it alone for now. Now, With the idle speed screw backed off, the throttle-valve should be open just a bit. You will adjust this later.
Next,
move the throttle lever to WOT, and check that the throttle valve follows; AND that none of the moving parts rub on anything. This is very important.
Next, SLOWLY, move the throttle lever back and fourth checking that the throttle valve follows nicely, with no herky-jerky shenanigans.
Next
Now we can set the governor, but first I want to make sure it works.
There is a shaft coming up out of the crankcase and the governor lever is fixed to the top of it. Set the throttle lever closed towards idle. When the engine is running, the governor is ALWAYS trying to close the throttle valve, against spring pressure. So operate that governor lever thru it's travel and make sure it has at least some modest kind of operating range, and learn which direction it needs to move to close the throttle, and memorize that . Now go look to see if it is in fact, closing the throttle! If it is not, then you'll have to adjust something.
This is real simple; loosen the clamp, move the governor in the direction you previously memorized, and close the throttle valve, and hold them both closed, while tightening the clamp. When done, make sure the doggone clamp cannot slip, and again that nothing rubs on anything thing that it shouldn't.
Now you're almost ready to fire it up. Make sure the carb is secured to the intake. I leave the Air box off for this, but remove the little torque limiters out of the plastic business and put them on the studs, then the nuts, then snug it. I leave it off so I can keep an eye on everything, and if something ain't right, it's an easy fix.
Now, turn the fuel on, turn the choke on, and open the throttle lever about half way. and pull!
As soon as the engine starts
1) make sure the governor is working by reaching over to it and slamming the throttle valve closed against spring pressure, before the engine revs up to far. You know it should work, cuz we already pre-set it.
2) As soon as you have done that, open the choke and return the throttle lever towards idle.
3) now is the time to adjust that black plastic idle speed screw. Do not try to idle it too slow at first.
4) Tentatively work the Throttle lever, making sure the rpm goes up and down progressively.
5) when the engine has warmed up, from idle, whack the throttle lever to WOT and immediately close it. If the engine stalls or stumbles, it's probably because the idle speed is too slow.
If the engine accepts that abuse idle it down until it complains about it, then increase the speed screw another 1/2 turn minimum. Lets call this the sweetspot.
6) if the idle quality sucks, try adjusting the mixture screw . It has a very limited range, and is designed to augment the position of the throttle among the two or more low-speed discharge ports. so to get a good quality idle, once you have found "the sweet spot" as above, you may have to increase the throttle-valve idle opening, to get a good balance.
7) In my experience, every Honda small engine idles lean. So if you can't get it ticking over nicely and the gas is known to be fresh, and you KNOW the internal passages are all clean, Then you might have to modify the low-speed circuit.
BUT, ask yourself this, does this piece of equipment need to idle sweetly?
Usually the answer is no.
Ok so, that's about all I got.
 
Last edited:
The governor limits the maximum engine speed, full throttle will never be full throttle unless under load or if the engine is off. From the factory the governor is usually calibrated to control engine speed to about 3,600 RPM when the throttle lever is at the full speed position. When the throttle lever is the low speed position the engine should be at a idle possibly around 1,000 - 1,200 RPM. Attached to the throttle lever is a spring that goes to the governor linkage/arm, then from there a linkage rod goes to the carburetor. While the engine is running and the throttle lever is moved to the full speed position it pulls on the governor linkage arm with the pull spring which then opens the carb, soon after as the engine speed goes high enough the governor pulls the link going the carb back to regulate the speed.

Now to your machine. It looks like you have an pneumatic solid solenoid that operates the throttle lever. I would assume that controls the throttle lever to raise or lower the engine speed. It's probably by design, but if you to make the engine idle just disconnect the the solenoid and control the throttle lever manually.
 
Last edited:
Ok, you guys are awesome! Thankyou, I just got back to the forum now as I was over helping my son with his fence. The info is great, Rusty the photo is exactly the same as mine si good reference, the parts diagrams from others are great, AJ and Ant, I will need to look at this tomorrow in the light as it's outside now but I will follow your instructions, I'm pretty sure the governor is good as it seems to move freely but I have had the lever off the governor shaft so I probably have set incorrect, your correct about the plastic black screw on the carb, if turned it all directions so I'll will set it as you said, I have some work to do, I should be able to look tomorrow. Thanks
 
This may be common knowledge to all you guys but I bought a chipper/ shredder from Lowe's years ago. I remember the manual said something like ethanol free fuel only. That engine sometimes sits for a couple years between uses but will usually crank first pull.
I have since acquired a pressure washer from my sister that was used once, then it sat for a while, never to crank again. It was filled with regular pump gas. I couldn't get it to crank either. I cleaned out the carburetor (I thought) and there was lots of corrosion sediment in the float bowl. Back together and still no go. Repeated probably 10 times before I discovered, from youtube, the emulsion tube. I pulled it out and these tiny little holes were plugged with corrosion. I had to search through all my junk to find a piece of wire small enough to poke through these very tiny little holes. Put it back together and to my amazement, it cranked on the first pull.
Now I know why to use ethanol free gasoline.
 
You should also check max rpm with a tach while adjusting the gov most come set below 3600 or the correct rpm for the application.
I have overdriven my snowblower with a 3 inch pulley 3900 rpm gets you 1400 impeller rpm on my 414cc ariens
blows snow 65 feet:)
 
I am not familiar with those, but many engine driven compressors have a device known as a "load genie" and some of those have an idle down feature when the thing is relieving. That may complicate things. These are an unloader (vents the compressor head output) to regulate pressure

 
It's not JUST oxygenated fuels that gum-up your small carbs.
Firstly, the quantity of ethanol in the fuel is usually just 10% or less.
Secondly, it is the first of many fuels than constitute modern gasohol, to evaporate. Which leaves the heavier molecules, which eventually dry up to become varnish, upon which grows the green chit. This stuff is insoluble in just about every cleaner you might have in your garage. Fresh gas will never dissolve it. Eventually it may let go of what it is sitting on, like in a metal fuel tank. And when it does, it may come off in small sheets and slivers, which soon plug up your fuel filter. But in the small carb, you pretty much gotta scrub it off after it has soaked in the recommended and very expensive solvent. And EVERY orifice has to be probed and restored to it's proper size. and some of the orifices are so small that if you didn't know where to look for them, you would, not just could, miss them.
All of this nonsense can be avoided by running a fuel-stabilizer in your tanks at all times, and either draining the systems, or running the tanks dry, at the end of the seasons. Stabilizer is cheap versus the minimum one hour that you will get charged to restore your piece of equipment, in a shop.
Like @tinman2 says, some of those holes are very very very small, and trying to find a probe can be a challenge.
 
Ok, hear are the photos of how my springs are arranged, I'm not sure they are correct, or even the correct ones, the issue I an having is the springs want to return the throttle to wide open, I tried adjusting at the governor by removing the arm but nothing I do makes it work properly, the issue is for sure in the linkage, guys appreciate the carb thoughts but like I said I already cleaned it and as a marine mechanic by trade I have cleaned litterly hundreds, probably thousands of carbs, it starts first pull and will idle with linkage off but when I hook it up it goes to WOT I can look down the carb and see the throttle plate is WOT with engine off, I've got something wrong on the linkage, AJ you said post photos of my linkage, here they are. Thanks

20240904_131315.jpg


20240904_131305.jpg


20240904_131300.jpg


20240904_124222.jpg
 
The ONLY way the dam throttle stays closed is with the springs OFF but they are going the right direction from all the photos I see, I'm taking a break, lol

20240904_143106.jpg


20240904_143103.jpg


20240904_143051.jpg
 
Ant said

Now to your machine. It looks like you have an pneumatic solid solenoid that operates the throttle lever. I would assume that controls the throttle lever to raise or lower the engine speed. It's probably by design, but if you to make the engine idle just disconnect the the solenoid and control the throttle lever manually.
I have never seen that rpm reducer, so you and Ant will have to figure that out, but I agree with him to just disconnect it for now.
The springs look correct to me, but just make sure they don't rub on anything.
 
Last edited:
From what I understand the compressor needs it, as pressure in the tank drops it pulls the throttle on to fill the tank then opens again with low pressure, I think I understand that mechanism but I'm.not sure it's rod is in the correct location. How do my spring locations look?
 
Ok I might have figured this out? It's amazing what you can buy on Amazon, so I was able to purchase the governor springs AND a new arm on AMAZON for this thing plus after searching the web a while longer I discovered that the little spring ( mine is pretty buggered up ) that slides over yhe throttle rod attatchs to a tiny hole in the black plastic throttle arm on the carb and I THINK that action will pull the throttle back to closed? If this works as I hope I will finish the final adjustments as described in this thread and Hopefully??? It will be fixed so I can get this thing out of my shed and sold to someone who can use it. I will let you know how it all goes once the Amazon man in the Amazon van delivers it!



20240904_131300.jpg


Screenshot_20240904_171907_Amazon Shopping.jpg


20240904_133735.jpg
 
Ok I circled the part I was trying to show where the little spring will go, I thought I could do it on my last post after I loaded the Pics but apparently I couldn't, lol,I'm better with a wrench than my smart phone, HA!

20240904_143051.jpg


20240904_133735.jpg
 
Ok I might have figured this out? It's amazing what you can buy on Amazon, so I was able to purchase the governor springs AND a new arm on AMAZON for this thing plus after searching the web a while longer I discovered that the little spring ( mine is pretty buggered up ) that slides over yhe throttle rod attatchs to a tiny hole in the black plastic throttle arm on the carb and I THINK that action will pull the throttle back to closed? If this works as I hope I will finish the final adjustments as described in this thread and Hopefully??? It will be fixed so I can get this thing out of my shed and sold to someone who can use it. I will let you know how it all goes once the Amazon man in the Amazon van delivers it!



View attachment 1716299147

View attachment 1716299148

View attachment 1716299146
must be some reason it's a number one seller. maybe the most common part that malfunctions. keeping fingers crossed it does the job!
 
Take that air solenoid thing out and get everything else working properly first. Then hook back up and adjust it if needed.

Also, it may be possible that they want the engine to not idle for this application, but IDK.
 
Last edited:
Yes my intention is to get everything working properly after the new parts/ springs are installed then when I'm happy with it I'll hook the air valve back up, my understanding is it must be hooked up in order to increase the rpm when the demand for more air in the tank is there.
 
-
Back
Top