I wanted a small generator for camping purposes, the options seemed to come down to a Honda or a Kipor.

I’ve used a Honda eu10i for many years at South Hants Model Car Club, and it was a fine unit.  The problem being the cost, they are around £700 new, and even used fetch £400.

A Kipor was a very attractive option, and at about £230 seemed very good value for money.  Slightly noisier than the equivalent Honda.

I saw a Honda EX650 in operation, and I was amazed at how quiet it was, so I searched eBay, and within hours I had ‘won’ an auction for one.  Spares or repair, £50 + £20 p&p…

Now I like a project, so I was relishing the chance to get stuck in.  The auction stated that the engine ran well, but there was no voltage output.

I got it delivered (eventually…), and filled it with oil and petrol.  It started second pull…  Nice.

I tested the output, no so nice, 20V ac and 4V dc.  That’s not working then.

Asking around it appeared that my first course of action was to service it, and try adjusting the governor output.

So I search the net and found Offmains.co.uk who purported to be a seller of spares, and a repairer of Honda generators.

I entered into an email communication with “Peter”, and he too recommended servicing it, and then testing it.

So £17 later I had a spark plug, air filter, oil filler cap on the way.

A quick service and it was running more smoothly, so I had to go down the route of testing the output.  I needed a workshop manual.  I got one off of eBay, about £7.

Some poking about suggested that the stator was bad.  Some more emails with the ever-helpful Peter and he suggested it could be the output capacitor, and suggested sending it back to him for testing.

I sent it back, and he told me it was fine, so it was probably the stator.  He had a used one in stock, and a frequency meter for the front panel (mine had failed), for £100 all in.

Okay, this is adding up a bit now, let’s do some sums…

Honda EX650 Generator = £70 eBay
Service Items = £17 Offmains
Service Manual = £7 eBay
Used Stator & Freq Meter = £100 Offmains

Total = £194

I got the stator this morning, fitted it, put it all back together and fired it up.

Success!  It’s all working fine now.

So a £50 eBay bargain turned into a £194 project…

Working Honda EX650s seem to go for £250-300, so whilst not a massive bargain, I’ve not lost out.  And I know how the thing works now too.

Would I do the same thing again?  Yes, if I had the time to spare, I like a little project.  I’ve ended up with a quiet small generator, I could have got a NEW Kipor for a little more money, perhaps that would have been the better option.

Maybe so, I can always sell this one and get something different in the future.