Onan Marquis 7000 generator starter failure
Went to start the generator before our annual trip to spring baseball in Lakeland. I could hear the starter motor engage, but the Bendix gears were just tearing themselves apart. Okay, 20 years is a...
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Finally was able to get the starter changed out. Fortune smiled on me, and a friend who is a general manager of a cotton gin allowed me to use their maintenance pit facility. This facility allowed me to stand and view the generator try from below. On my configuration, there are two access portals in the tray holding the genny, and I was able to use a flexible ratcheting wrench to reach the bottom retaining bolt and battery connector. From the top, over the back of the genny I was able to reach the top retaining bolt.
Caution: the flywheel housing is not threaded, there are hex bolts holding the starter to the housing, and gravity is not on your side. The magnetic pick-up got used a couple of times, but no parts were lost.
Hint: un-torque the battery connecting nut first, as that sucker was torqued on and after I had loosened the retaining bolts the started wanted to wobble while I was trying to get that nut off. Those access ports are not very big, and my hands left me very little room to wrestle with the starter!
Good news: the genny fired up on the first try and is running normally.
The whole process took me about 1 1/2 hours. Total out of pocket was the replacement starter for $31 on eBay.
Caution: the flywheel housing is not threaded, there are hex bolts holding the starter to the housing, and gravity is not on your side. The magnetic pick-up got used a couple of times, but no parts were lost.
Hint: un-torque the battery connecting nut first, as that sucker was torqued on and after I had loosened the retaining bolts the started wanted to wobble while I was trying to get that nut off. Those access ports are not very big, and my hands left me very little room to wrestle with the starter!
Good news: the genny fired up on the first try and is running normally.
The whole process took me about 1 1/2 hours. Total out of pocket was the replacement starter for $31 on eBay.
