Forum Discussion

Usagi's avatar
Usagi
Explorer
Sep 16, 2013

Onan flooding and engine does not charge house battery

I have a 1994 Four Winds 5000 R/V that I recently bought. It's 29 ft in length.

The Onan 4000 generator is hard to start. I believe it's flooding. There is a strong smell of gasoline while it is cranking. Is there some trick to starting it?

Charging:
There is a LED charge indicator on the wall. With nothing running, the yellow LED is lit. With the generator running the green one above it is lit. With the R/V truck engine running the yellow LED is lit, which I believe is indicating that the engine is not charging the house battery. Is there a switch, solenoid or breaker that needs to be thrown for the house battery to charge? If so, where do I find it?
Class C

1 Reply

  • Dakzuki's avatar
    Dakzuki
    Explorer II
    Sep 16, 2013
    There should be a solenoid that activates when the engine is running to charge the house battery OR on some Fords there is an OE circuit for charging the aux battery. I had that on my 94 E350 Chinook and it went bad. Instead of fixing it I put in a combiner relay so if either battery was charging they would combine and both charge.

    If the gennie is truly flooding the carb may well be gunked and need a tear down. If there was an ignition failure in the gennie you'd smell fuel as it would not be getting burned.

    If you determine it truly is flooding make sure you check the oil. A bad flooding situation can end up with a bunch of gas in the oil which is not good. I just dealt with that on a Honda generator.

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