I had similar symptoms with surging not under load. Did try it with a load because I feared frying the voltage reg. And/or appliances.
I tried rebuilding the carb to no avail.
The resolution was a new carb.
I did source the carb through Kawasaki directly and saved $100 vs buying it through kohler..

 

Which carburetor was it? - I was also looking into this for my 2004 Kohler 5e. Was it a direct replacement? I know the engines are Kawasaki.

-Kevin

 

I had surging on my 4kW and found the spring that was on the carb linkage had detach.

Once reconnected it's rock steady.

Lets hope it's this simple.

 

I had surging on my 4kW and found the spring that was on the carb linkage had detach.

Once reconnected it's rock steady.

Lets hope it's this simple.

All looks good, was able to move them all around, the RPMs changed and the unit recovered quickly back to its normal speed.

Frustrating and not good as I know surging under load is bound to cause a voltage spike and damage something.

That said, we made it back to the dock and our A/C compressor isn't wanting to kick on. It's trying to cycle every 30 or so seconds...so I may have found my "surge". Need to run it with the water heater on vs the A/C and see what happens.

 

I found the Kawasaki part #
15004-0773
For my kohler 5e year
Kawasaki 2cylinder Fd501d
I believe I ordered it from
Jacks small engine parts but not 100% certain

 

I found the Kawasaki part #
15004-0773
For my kohler 5e year
Kawasaki 2cylinder Fd501d
I believe I ordered it from
Jacks small engine parts but not 100% certain

View attachment 107534

Thanks, I will verify if I have the FD501D on my Kohler.
Did you need to get a gasket or was it included in the kit?
Was it a simple swap out - any gotchas ?

-Kevin

 

I do not recall on the gasket.

And no gottachs. Bolt up and go. Swapped a couple parts from carb to card but it is the exact carb as installed from the factory.
No adjustments necessary and as the enclosed instructions state it is preadjusted.

last but not least DO NOT use FUEL with ETHANOL unless you plan on buying a new carb every year.

 

Unfortunately I am limited by what fuel is available at the docks
I will look into other options including running my winterization off a highly stablized tank or even draining the bowl.

Thanks again!
-Kevin

 

My Kohler manual supplement shows I have the FD501D and Amazon has this carb (via third party) so going to order it and hopefully the surging will go away. Worth a shot for this price.

-Kevin

 

Please keep the forum informed. Thanks

 

Closing this out as the generator ran fine yesterday for 4 hours. Turns out my "surging" was due to my A/C Compressor being locked up and it trying to kick on every 30 seconds.

New A/C unit and the gen is back to just purrring...

 

Glad you got it worked out

Interesting that the AC unit just didn't trip it's own breaker.

I ran my generator for a few minutes under load Sunday morning and it does load up for a second when the AC kick in.