Onan carb fix
I have a 5500 onan in my new fuzion and it's always had a lean pop out the exhaust and would surge when not under a load. I am a diesel tech and refused to buy into the fact these carbs can't be clean...
Forum Discussion
dougrainer wrote:
There is a misconception that the Onan carbs are not serviceable. They can be removed and cleaned out. What you CANNOT do is buy a rebuild kit. But, rebuilding usually, the seals and gaskets are not destroyed. As to the OP's problem, I doubt the reason is the design of a "lean" carb. I have never seen a Gas Onan have surge or popping when under load or NOT under load as long as everything is within specs. Now, drilling out may be a good fix for marginal carbs. Doug
I'm not going to claim to be an expert on Onan gens, but I've worked on a dozen or so, rebuilt many carbs for them, including non-repairables (and rebuilt even more for my motorcycles) and spent years reading the Smokstak board on Onan gen problems and solutions. I agree with Doug. I'll also comment that by far the best Onan experts I've run into are on the Smokstak board, and redrilling lean carb jets is not a common solution they give for carb problems. I don't recall ever seeing it.
Cleaning jets (carefully) - yes - but redrilling - no. My personal experience is that the carbs work fine when the gen is set to spec. Most problems seem to trace back to something else.
