Onan repair

[Rich Biebel]

Your biggest issue is that there are very few places that work on generators.
There is no industry standard on this type of work.

RV places if they do work on them are generally very high priced and likely to "sell you a bill of goods" is how I would put it.....

We get cutomers all the time that show us bills from RV facilities and they are usually very high.

Onan is owned by Cummins.....and some places that are listed as doing Onan repairs are primarily big truck engine repair facilities....

You are probably being charged a lot of diagnosis time. Maybe they spent half a day trying to decide what was wrong with it.

I work on them all the time and often let one run outside for hours waiting for it to fail so I can test it after it fails.

We don't charge hours and hours of labor for something like this.

I also do repairs based on my experience with these machines and fuel pump failure is high on the list.....

[ss3011]

I have the same problem with my Onan 4000 Microlite. I replaced the carburator about three years ago and that fixed it, but now it is back doing the same thing. It runs for five to ten minutes then shuts down and wont restart. I disconnected the fuel line, and when I crank it, plenty of fuel pumps out. I tried cleaning and blowing out all the passages of the carb, but still has the problem. I am thinking of buy another carb. If your generator gets fixed please post what they did to fix it. Thanks

[Rich Biebel]

Most later 4KY's have the coil mounted under the blower/flywheel.
The coil wire is part of the coil and it is a magneto type ignition.
The coil wire is at a very sharp angle as it routes to the spark plug.
The vibration of the engine and the bad angle of the wire often causes the wire to fail. It is a carbon core type wire and you lose spark as the unit gets hot......
Possibly your problem....

Fuel pumps are a piston design and even though you see fuel coming out cold.....it could still be your issue. If it was never changed and the unit has some hours on it.....it may be your problem....

The solinoid on the carbs fuel bowl energizes with the pump and allows fuel to flow. If has a ground wire and a B+. They don't fail often but do get stuck from a unit that sat with fuel in it....

[joe176]

I had an issue with my RV Onan generator shutting off a few years ago .......Matt Schurman is the go to guy.....D1 super gas racer....brought the RV to his company in northern NJ ...( mind you I live on Long Island and RV repair places here are crooks) and he found it was a coolant sensor.....did a complete tune up on it which included removing this monster from the truck to get to the sensor for $700....was totally happy with Matt and his work....great guy to do business with.

[Rich Biebel]

Joe that was a difficult job as I recall....getting the generator out and back in was no bargain....

We have had others just as bad........

Front mounted diesels.....no slide and have to remove the front of the M-H to get the generator out....

Matt and I have worked together for 20 years now.....


Rich

[joe176]

Rich I didn't know you worked with Matt......knew it had to be difficult considering the circumstances.....you "guys" did a great job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rich Biebel]

Joe I am the guy Matt says infected him with drag racing...

He usually says that after losing in the first round somewhere....LOL