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Old 01-14-2011, 06:21 PM   #1
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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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Old 01-14-2011, 06:32 PM   #2
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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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Old 01-14-2011, 08:11 PM   #3
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Originally Posted by scubieman View Post
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.
Good advice.
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Old 01-14-2011, 11:22 PM   #4
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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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Old 01-14-2011, 11:43 PM   #5
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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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Old 01-15-2011, 08:24 AM   #6
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Hope this info will help you with the generator problem. Good luck and let us know what you find.

Onan Generator Service Diagram.pdf

Onan - Marquis 5.5 KW Manual.pdf

ONAN - Marquis 5.5 KW.pdf

Onan Generator Spec Sheet.pdf
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Old 03-13-2011, 01:27 AM   #7
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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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Old 03-14-2011, 03:56 PM   #8
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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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Old 03-14-2011, 06:09 PM   #9
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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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Old 03-14-2011, 11:00 PM   #10
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While you have it out I would try and pull the bowl off the carb...
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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Old 03-14-2011, 11:12 PM   #11
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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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Old 03-21-2011, 10:57 PM   #12
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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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Old 03-21-2011, 11:00 PM   #13
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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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Old 03-21-2011, 11:20 PM   #14
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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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Old 04-02-2011, 10:07 PM   #15
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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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Old 04-12-2011, 09:49 PM   #16
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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.
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Old 04-16-2011, 04:00 AM   #17
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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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