- Joined
- Jan 25, 2015
- Messages
- 2,558
No, it's not the pump. The overloader is doing exactly what it should be doing. Throttling the engine back with the choke stops the overloader from cycling.My interpretation of the charts is a bit different. As I see it the lower the pressure the pump puts out the smaller the nozzle orifice has to be for the machine to reach the rated pressure. The larger the nozzle orifice allows a larger volume of water to flow through thus not maintaining enough back pressure for the pump to reach the rated pressure. A higher pressure/capacity pump can maintain the rated pressure with a larger orifice.
I'm guessing you have internal pump problems. I have 2 pressure washers. The older electric one is about the same age with close to the same pressure and volume rating as yours. It started having problems a few years ago. When I tore down the pump It was obvious what happened. Pumps of that era have ceramic coated steel pistons. Over time the ceramic wears and starts to chip off. The chips get caught in the valves and either hold them open so little pressure is developed or clog the ports. When the ports are clogged the pump reaches the overload pressure in short order. Then the motor idles down.
I ended up replacing the pump with a General like this:
At first, I thought about rebuilding the pump. I contacted General for a kit and was advised that they did have them, but I should completely disassemble the pump before ordering one. If the cylinder bores showed any signs of scoring the kit would not last long. I did as suggest and found the cylinders were a mess. Rather than throw good money after bad I bit the bullet and ordered a new pump. Unfortunately, today they cost close to $750.00 a copy. That's more than double the price of a few years ago. I'm sure you can replace the entire unit for far less.
This model pump doesn't have ceramic pistons or coated pistons:
All steel.
It's either the rpm of the engine or I've cocked something up with the guns somehow....
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