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01-14-2011, 06:21 PM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Generator Woes
My generator won't run unless you hold the start switch down. So I took it to my local cummin's (Onan) dealer. Cummins Northwest
They charged me $113/hr with a two hour minimum just to look at it. That's $226. Dropped it off day 1, called them twice on day 2 with no call back. Called again on day 3 then they finally started working on it.
They called back a few hours later and said that they needed to remove the generator because it sounded bad and they thought maybe the stator or roter was bad. That would be another four hours ($452 more). So $678 just to find out what's wrong.
I told them no to removing it, asked them for a quote based on what they though was wrong. $2604.41
A new generator is $3500 with free shipping from rvparts.com. I could install it myself in less than a day.
Pretty rotten experience so far. So I'm just venting here.
Generator is an Onan Gold Marquis 5500. 547 hours on it. Coach is a 2008, I don't know the year on the genset.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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01-14-2011, 06:32 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 517
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Personal for how much you like your RV and how much you use the generator I would recommend buy a new one. They may add more expenses by the time they are done. Plus you have spare parts/spare generator you can fix or have someone else fix for cheaper then sell to cover some of the cost.
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2009 Dodge Ram Mega Cab 2500 6.7 cummins
2011 Forest River Cherokee 28BHKS
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01-14-2011, 08:11 PM
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#3
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Site Team - Lou
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: South Eastern PA
Posts: 23,268
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scubieman
Personal for how much you like your RV and how much you use the generator I would recommend buy a new one. They may add more expenses by the time they are done. Plus you have spare parts/spare generator you can fix or have someone else fix for cheaper then sell to cover some of the cost.
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Good advice.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
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01-14-2011, 11:22 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 855
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Now you know why I will never own a built in generator. A total waste of money IMHO.
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01-14-2011, 11:43 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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I think the plan at this stage is to find the service manual for it and see if I can fix it myself. Even if this involves removing the genset. If I can't get it fixed I'll order a new one.
Great story though; while my brother, my father-in-law and I are sitting around the table discussing how to lower the 330lb generator from it's perch up in the motorhome. Buying a transmission jack maybe. Or building cribbing and using floor jacks to lower it a bit at a time. Suddenly from next to us my 9 year old daughter says, "Why don't you use a fork lift." We where all dumbfounded. The table was silent. Perfect! With a bit of cribbing on the forks it'll be almost no effort. And I've got access to one and giant parking lot where I can leave the motorhome at work right under the security cameras with a security guard walking the grounds twice an hour.
That's my girl!
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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01-15-2011, 08:24 AM
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#6
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CLASS "A" Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Upperco, Maryland
Posts: 3,136
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2007 Georgetown 370TS
aka - RAYNMKR
Driver: Charlie
Navigator: Sheri
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03-13-2011, 01:27 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Removed the generator from the motorhome today. Wasn't too hard. Did it by myself with a floor jack and some cribbing. Also a furniture dolly to move it around on.
Took the cover off and wow, everything inside is coated in dust so that it all looks like it's brown. Spent a long time just removing the caked on dust.
I bought the service manual so I started going through the tests based on the error code that it's showing.
So far I've found that it's leaking oil from one of the valve covers and the brushes are shot. However the rotor isn't bad, it checks out. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to check the stator.
Soon it will be time to order some parts!
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-14-2011, 03:56 PM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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First parts order from PPL Motorhomes.
$217.09
Spark Plugs x2
Oil filter x2 (extra for later)
Air filter x2 (extra for later)
brush block
valve cover gaskets x2
fuel filter on pump
fuel filter on carb
belt
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-14-2011, 06:09 PM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 653
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While you have it out I would try and pull the bowl off the carb and make sure you don't find any pieces of garbage from sitting in the winter time. Ours did the exact same thing your describing and I had to put a new carb on and it ran perfect. If you are ok with cleaning carbs I would take the whole thing apart and soak it in a bucket of NAPA carb cleaner (comes with a basket) for about a half an hour and then blow it out with air. Just make sure you don't soak parts with rubber O rings still on them. I would try that before dumping any more money into electronics.
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03-14-2011, 11:00 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MotocrossCamper
While you have it out I would try and pull the bowl off the carb...
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Good idea. When I take the air filter housing off to get at the second fuel filter I'm going to clean out the bowl and hose everything off with crab cleaner at least.
Then again pretty much everything is going to get attacked with some kind of stiff bristle brush and lots of compressed air soon to clean the thing up. Lots of degrease to do too where the valve cover is leaking.
All that cleaning will probably be my next task, since the engine is still all closed up so nothing can get into it.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-14-2011, 11:12 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Brush length was at <1mm and ~3mm. Manual calls for minimum brush length of 11mm. 800ohms measured between the short brush connector and it's ring. So I'm fairly sure that one brush wasn't making hardly contact all. There-for no field voltage and so no quadrature winding output, which is what a code 32 means.
Ran the generator a bit today. Even with the brushes disconnected it still throws an Error 32 which is a good sign. Tore out the controller and disconnected everything so that I could check the primary and quadrature windings. They all checked out. So that should mean that both the rotor and stator are in good shape. Good thing since they're expensive.
Tried to get one one of the plugs out but none of my spark plug sockets fit. Much larger than anything else I have. When I get the new spark plugs I'll take one down to sears and buy the right one.
7 to 14 days to wait on the parts. waiting...
Took the soot plug out of the muffler and it was like watching sand from an hour glass, except that it blew away in the wind. Manual says to run the generator at near full power for five minutes with the soot plug out to expel all the ick from inside the muffler. So I'll do that once I get it running.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-21-2011, 10:57 PM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Took the muffler out of the generator and took it down to the muffler shop to have a new exaust pipe made for it and a couple of broken bolts removed. $35 for a shiny new pipe and the bolts removed. When I got home I had a box of parts from Onan!
I put the muffler back together, cleaned the slip rings on the rotor with some electrical connection cleaner. Installed the new brushes and checked the resistance across them. 34ohms, just like the manual says.
So I connected everything up and started it up. It ran, like before, but this time it kept running and I got a solid red indicator light. I hurried to check the output voltage and I was getting 115.3 volts AC! I'm so happy!
I plugged a 1kW heater into the generator and it kept running, no lag at all.
True it ran pretty rough and blew some smoke but this is a step in the right direction.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-21-2011, 11:00 PM
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#13
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Got one of the spark plugs out. Whew, it did not look good, very warn, gap was far too large and the plug was black. I can't get the other plug out. The hole in the heat shield around the plug is too small to admit the only 13/16" deep well socket I own. It's a heavy duty impact model.
So tomorrow it's off to sears to buy a 13/16" deep well thin walled socket.
BTW Onan says that the plugs come properly gapp'ed from the factory. Nowhere in the owners manual or service manual does it list the correct gap. So I measured the new plugs I just got, they're .034. So now you know.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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03-21-2011, 11:20 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Saint Cloud FL
Posts: 1,565
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congrats on taking the time to fix it yourself - not many are willing to tackle that kind of job - Hats off to you for trying to so far beating it at its own game
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2011 Rockwood Mini Lite 2306 - Matt
2004 Dodge Ram 1500 Qaud Cab 4x4 with 35" tires and 3.92 gears, Dynatech Longtube Headers & Fabtech 6" lift + Superchips with shift Tuning
Nights Camped 2011 (37) - 2012 (16)-2013 (2) -2014 (5) -2015(0)
USMC 91 - 95 - F/A-18 Aviation Ordnance
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04-02-2011, 10:07 PM
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#15
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 312
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Reinstalled the generator in the motorhome today. Works great. Ran the microwave and air conditioner. Watched a voltage meter and frequency meter while I switched these large loads on and off. Both stayed within spec. Plus it was a good excuse to heat up a couple hot dogs in the microwave. yum!
Before reinstall I replaced the other spark plug. Replaced the valve cover gasket, no more leaks. I also sprayed the whole thing down with foamy engine bright. Went over it with a stiff nylon brush/ Covered the alternator with a plastic bag and hosed off all the collected dirt and grease. Replaced the air filter, changed the oil and oil filter. The air filter housing was pretty nasty so I washed all the old ick out of it.
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2008 Georgetown SE 350DS BunkHouse
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04-12-2011, 09:49 PM
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#16
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Langley BC
Posts: 123
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Congratulations! That is a remarkable undertaking for a novice. Several lessons have been learned. The most important is how to take charge of a problem and secondly that with a lot of initiative and some knowledge most problems can be solved.
Lloyd
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04-16-2011, 04:00 AM
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#17
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: newburgh n.y.
Posts: 45
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JSUTHERL, Good job buddy, You should open a Gen repair shop on the side. Saved yourself allot of money and you know the job is done correctly. Give yourself an A !!
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