Take the good brush to a motor rewind shop or an electric power tool repair shop. They might be able to match it up or fabricate new ones for you. If Winco contacts you, they may be able to direct you to one of their distributors/dealers for parts. I spoke with them recently about a Winco generator that one of our customers purchased for a home standby unit.
Re: Any one recognise this generator? With the three brushes, this generator is what I call a backwards/ upsidedown unit. Some generator pull the main load ( 120/240 volts ) from the stator and the field is the rotating part ( the rotor ). Gillette-Fairbanks Ward USA 4000 watts AC (not surge power) model RH-40, Serial # EH-20-16. 4 cycle 8 hp @3600 rpm air cooled Briggs and Stratton, recoil start, manual choke, 4 quart fuel tank and has the chrome plated piston and aluminum alloy cylinder that better dissipates heat.
I think that I might have a phone # or e-mail address at the office for someone in tech support. Let me know if you want it, and I'll send it to you via personal message. Sorry to hear about the hornet sting. Sounds pretty darned painful! Another place to get brushes from is helwig, I beleive their websight is I too have a generator that looks almost identical to your unit.
Same techumseh engine, muffler, plastic fuel tank, carb/air filter and gen. I bought mine from COMB (the liquidator place) back in the mid 80's. Mine has a white sticker with red lettering on it that says Fairbanks Ward.
The generator / engine is still painted it's original red color. They (COMB) had a showroom in Davenport, IA and at the time they had several units to choose from. I looked over their selection and chose one with the long oil fill / dipstick to put oil in the engine as well as electric start. All the 4000 watt units were priced the same. The start button is similar to the old foot operated dimmer switch (why did they ever do away with those, I hate having the dimmer switch, windshield wiper/washer, cruise control, etc all on the turn signal lever) with really heavy contacts. Starting battery charging is regulated by a resistor and nothing else.
Mine has the 3 slip rings and each are double brushed (in parallell, two brushes on each slip ring) as well as a segmented commutator with 2 brushes. Mine is a 3600 r.p.m. Unit and is pretty loud, the muffler is basically a tin can with no baffles in it. It has 2 field poles 180 degrees apart and the stator (as mentioned earlier) is the part that spins.
The reason I bought the one with electric start, I know how hard and stubborn air cooled engines can be to start in cold weather and I bought the generator mainly to run the furnace in the winter if the power ever went out for an extended period of time from an ice storm or the like. Thankfully I haven't had to use it for that purpose. At the COMB liquidator place they had the 4000 watt unit like yours and mine, as well as some 8000 watt units, all with the Fairbanks Ward tag on them. I chose a 4000 watt unit as I couldn't pick up one of the 8000 watt units. Also price was a factor. Mine still has the price tag on it, as I'm at work right know and don't remember the exact price, I do know it was around the $450 dollar range. I run mine every now an then to make sure it will work when I need it.
Have been doing some google searches and have stumbled on a web sight that has a quieter muffler for the techumseh engine, again as I'm at work (after work) and didn't have the spec numbers for my engine, so I don't know if the quieter muffler will bolt up to my engine. Good luck on getting your generator running, with mine I also made up an interface box with amp meters and 15 amp circuit breakers on it as the generator has no self contained privisions for such protection or monitoring. The 220 plug that is on my generator has the common (ground) hooked to one slip ring and the two flat prongs are each connected to the other two slip rings.
That is where I plug the interface box into. There is also a lug to attach an earth ground as well as the battery connection. Heres the pics, It took me a few trys to figure it out sorry Hello fellow piston collectors I have this exact genny mine is all red with a black tank can anyone figure out the date it may have been made from this 'HM-80 155288H ' is on the motor, on the business end the only code I can find is a small stamped set reading '66676', My brother calls it 'Satan's Generator' being all red red and all then finding those numbers he was taken back 'I told you it was EVIL!!! Get rid of it'!! He said LOL Also Tim what did that beautiful looking intake carb and filter cost ya if you do not mid me asking that is? Thanks Richie. I did not read all of this thread, but if you don't have a service manual for that 8 HP tecumseh you might try this link of google search asnd download a FREE L head service manual.
I review tecumseh /peerless parts and review illustrated parts diagrams at m&dmower.com Several parts are still available for that engine on ebay and at m&d, but the crankshaft is hard to find because it's most likly the tapered output type. Seems little strange that they have a 8hp engine on a 1KW gen when a 5hp would have been ok. I have a similiar 1.6kw unit with a 5hp tecumseh engine. Those gen's were consertavely rated. Mine will do full 1500 out with no problems.
Mine is not the uoside though, it's output is on the stator windings instead of the brushs. I was under the impresion this was a 4K watt genny same as the orange one above and the other red one I saw on here that was a 4k? How did you figure out it is a 1k? I'm curious I'm not saying it isn't a 1k It may very well be however the other two with the exact numbers are 4k I just cant find the year it was made! THANKS FOR THE SURPLUS PAGE ON THE Tecumseh!
You are correct about it being a 4KW at 240v @ 16.6 amps. I just glanced at the nametag in pic 3 at pst #4 and mistook the first digit 4 for a 1 due to the mutilated first digit. That explains why its a 8hp engine for the 4kw gen. When that gen unit was built the gen was actually built for a full 4kw whereas most nowdays are intermittent duty rated and not built as good! I've converted those 5 to 10 hp tecumseh generator engines to 12v elec start for less than $100 using used parts from ebay. Kinda surprising that it usually takes a group 24 battery to crank the 8-10hp when the engine is cold. This link will give a few hints for such.
Make sure the tecumseh engine block is drilled and tapped for a starter. (It has raised threaded bosses and the air cowling will have to be relieved at the bendix starter area usually if it's not a cowling for a starter.