Dead Onan 4000 generator
Went to fire up my Onan 4000 generator for the 1st time this year. Held the Start/Prime switch down on Prime and the light came on and flashed like usual. After about 5 seconds I released the switch...
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craz z wrote:
I had a bad starter that would work half ass then finally nothing the starter needs to wind up to throw out the gear into the flywheel once locked out nothing happens and seems to go when you least expect it.
I had a bad starter for awhile, with what sound like similar symptoms: it had trouble getting the engine over the compression stroke, and would sometimes need a running start to do that. It also cranked over the engine without much vigor. Eventually, it burned out and I had to replace it.
On examining the remains of the bad starter, I found that one of the four brushes was not working properly, which meant the starter had been operating at half power for quite some time. (The starter has four brushes and four poles, unlike many motors that have but two.) It finally died due to some of the coils on the armature burning out, probably due to being stalled or nearly stalled since it lacked torque. At any rate, before that happened, I probably could have repaired it simply by fixing the bum brush.
