On a sunny day (Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:30:46 -0600) it happened m II
wrote in :

This is the starter solenoid from a 5kw Chinese diesel generator
(Launtop powered):

http://www.scotiabunk.com/Quality/small-1.jpg

The machine has two hours TOTAL running time. Note the quality rubber
boot.

There was a warning a couple of years ago about Chinese rubber.
This had to do with Chinese scooters, the rubbers seem to fall apart
after a year and you can throw the whole thing away.
You want Taiwan.
I had Chinese rubber bands that just fell apart after some weeks.
Bought from a respectable place (Albert Heijn here).
So stay clear of anything that has Chinese rubbers in it.



Also note the soldered connections. Those are the solenoid winding
terminations. You can NOT get at the contacts until you de-solder the
wires. I learned that when I had to clean the non-conducting starter
contacts on another, similar, Launtop machine.

The cheap 3 dollar 4 some cents Chinese multimeters I bough have also
great lead free soldering, note how the shunt is soldered:
I do no cry easily, but you must have read in the news that Bangkok flooded:
http://panteltje.com/pub/3_dollar_me...l_img_3160.jpg




This is the reason why the starter wouldn't crank the engine over:

http://www.scotiabunk.com/Quality/small-2.jpg

oops


I'm lucky the broken piece didn't get caught in the flywheel ring gear.



This is from the socket set I used to remove the battery terminal lug
nuts with.

http://www.scotiabunk.com/Quality/small-3.jpg

There are a lot of very cheap tool sets around made of steel 10 (if that exists).


Care to guess where they were made?



This particular model of Launtop generator is sold under dozens of
different names. There has been a recall on them. They have counterfeit
ISO 2001, CE and Canadian Standards Association (like UL) decals on them.=


The breakers are also improperly marked. The Canadian Standards people
are doing NOTHING to help me, despite the fraudulent use of their
Trademarked logo. Launtop is also doing nothing. Red maple seems to be
conveniently out of business.


http://tinyurl.com/6zrfft



Don't buy Chinese.

Generalisation is a very dangerous thing.
They have good stuff too.
Lots of it.

Inform yourself before you buy, google will tell you how the situation is
for a particular product.

If you did not type the product name and something like 'review' or 'problem'
or 'experience' in google, then you were gambling.
The same goes for any country, or product.
My opinion of my Samsung 3D TV is there as a warning on my site for anybody for example.
And that is not Chinese.
Sometimes you learn the hard way.
And, for that money you got to accept some things sometimes too,
especially if it can be easily fixed, as with that cheap meter,