Hobart Champion 16 troubles.

[JimT]

I just bought a Hobart champion 16 off of Ebay. It has an Onan engine.

I'm beginning to think I bought a lemon. (I bought the thing to weld with not to work on.)

The engine runs fine but when trying to weld, the arc only lasts about 10 seconds and then it bogs the engine down and the arc dies out.

Any ideas what might be causing this?

How do I find out exactly what model this unit is? Where would I find the data plate so that I can specifically identify it?

[JimT]

After letting it run for an hour, it finally idled down and started welding about half right. It seems to have been sitting for sometime before I bought it and the gas had gone bad.

I drained the the tank and put fresh gas in it with some fuel system cleaner. If that's the fix... I'm real happy.

[SidecarFlip]

Go to Pep Boys or Menards or AutoZone and get a can of Sea-Foam and pour that in. That will clean up the carb and intake system so the Onan will run properly.

[Marksweldingams]

When I had my titan 8000, I use the think that thing ran and welded better with a good charged or new battery also. I had the Kohler 18 in it thou.
But yeh it made a difference I believe. It would stay on high idle till it thru enough of a charge in the battery for a while. Then it seemed the welding smoothed out, sold to a friend who left it in rain filled with water and ruined it.
Should of kept it for the 400
Good luck, and I had to redo the carb a few times.

[JimT]

Thanks for the feed back. I'll try the Sea Foam as well.

[SidecarFlip]

The 'new' gasoline or should I say Obama gasoline is pretty unstable stuff. The corn alcohol content makes it turn bad quickly, summer or winter.

Best bet is to always add some Marine Stabil (it's blue/green not red) with every tankful in machines that don't run daily.

I use Sea-Foam in my vehicles every 5,000 miles. keeps the gunk out of the injection system and improves mileage and wel all need that with gas at or around 4 bucks a gallon and climbing.

[xdhd350]

The 'new' gasoline or should I say Obama gasoline is pretty unstable stuff. The corn alcohol content makes it turn bad quickly, summer or winter.

Agreed, except for the Obama part. I've been having this problem long before Obama got here. A few years back, they decided to do the summer blend here in TX with ethanol rather than MTBE. Stations were supposed to do a proper clean out of their tanks before switching. Some didn't, I was unlucky enough to buy that gasoline. It screwed up the carb on my lawn mower, pressure washer, and the motorcycle. I had to drain and rebuild all those carbs. Naturally, the station disavowed any responsibility for their crap gas. Some people got it in their cars, but luckily I didn't. Now, that's all they sell and i make sure I put Stabil in anything that doesn't run often. And we get to pay a premium price for that crap these days.

[SidecarFlip]

I have to blame it on someone. Might as well be Obama. He's in charge and thus accountable.

[JimT]

The Ethanol issue may not be Obama's fault but the price of gas sure the heck is. He has been waging a quite war on energy production in the U.S. while talking publicly like he is doing all he can to boost production.

Some of us are using post-it notes and leaving little messages on the gas pumps when we fill up for the next guy in line. The note says "How's that Hope And Change thing working out for you?"

This reminds me that I need to address the bad gas in my old 'vette that I let sit to long.

[SidecarFlip]

Give it a straight shot of Sea-Foam directly in the fuel line to the float bowl. It's amazing stuff. Blows the sludge and slime right out.

The corn liquor gas sucks.

[mikecwik]

july 4th is national burnout day. supposed to boost the economy. for 10 minutes motorcyclist are allowed to do burnouts on public roads. this is just as dumb as cash for clunkers was. only a moron or a politician would see fit to ruin perfectly functioning things for profit.

sea foam is good stuff. the only thing it cant do is clean where fuel isnt flowing. take a look in the tank to see if any bad things are in there. might not hurt to drain the carbs either.

ethanol!? what a joke. spend 4 bucks to make 3.50 worth of fuel.

[Zrexxer]

july 4th is national burnout day. supposed to boost the economy. for 10 minutes motorcyclist are allowed to do burnouts on public roads. this is just as dumb as cash for clunkers was.

Where did you come up with that half baked rumor? Oh wait, let me guess... you read it on the internet so it must be true...

[mikecwik]

http://motorcyclist.automotive.com/1...ear/index.html

im fully baked by the by

[mikecwik]

my only concern is not only the stupidity of the idea but the potential to kick the earth off of its axis

[Zrexxer]

my only concern is not only the stupidity of the idea but the potential to kick the earth off of its axis

Might want to do a little research on the meaning of the word "only" while you're at it.