Thought I killed my on board generator!

[Grit_dog]

Which would have been tragic since it has now 9 whole hours on it and only been in my possession a week!
Pulling maintenance on our new to us camper, I changed the genny oil and decided the 4 years of dust and the oil I spilled needed to go. Because a clean generator is a happy one right?? Plus I’m OCD about stuff like that.
Gave it a once over since I’m not experienced with these built in Onans. Saw the control board front and center but it appeared to be sealed / potted in rubber.
Litttle spray with cycle wash everywhere and some de greaser on the oil spill and then hosed er down.
Miastake #1. Usually a run an engine while spraying/ cleaning it. Maybe a placebo maybe not. But I did not.
Mistake #2. The cheapo sealing job on the control board was coming apart on the edges.
Genny down for the count. Shorting out. Primer would go on by itself. Wouldn’t crank over .
Blowing air into the board it was bubbling soap water out the other side.
Pulled board out vacuum, compressed air etc. plugged back in temporarily. No go.
A little fiddling revealed the outside start switch would work sort of if pressure held on.
After doing that and getting it to start and heat up, problem is gone. I see a crack in the switch actually. So likely not all my issue with the water but nonetheless, a more important warning about the quality of the seal on the control board.

[BruceMc]

And, the number 40 represents the 40th formulation before they were satisfied with it.

WD-40, Water Displacement, formula #40! It is NOT a general lubricant, tho it can be used as a short term mediocre lube.

[wa8yxm]

noteven wrote:
A flooding with Water Displacer 40 can help these situations.

That is LITERALLY what it was designed for. (WD-40) WD=Water Displacer)

[Grit_dog]

^Yup, apparently that’s the lesson!
My ocd got the best of me though.

WD40 is a good idea. I was almost there but, I’d just cleaned it all up! Lol

[BruceMc]

I made a similar mistake on our 2000 Four Winds several years ago. It had run fine for a couple of years, but I just had to clean it. Yes, OCD… Mistake. It would run but all it would do is surge real bad.
The control board and electrics were fine, but I have no idea what I washed out of it to cause the issue. In the end, I twiddled with the governor until I got it to settle down. It ran fine after that.
The heck of it is, that generator still starts easier than the one on our 2016 motorhome.

Lesson learned, never wash your generator!

Like Gritdog, if there was a nice quiet inverter generator out there, they'd quickly replace all these 60 year old technology Onans.

[noteven]

A flooding with Water Displacer 40 can help these situations.

[Campinfan]

Glad it worked out OK. I would have had that "what did I do?" thought running in my head too.

[Grit_dog]

What's more, is the Onan 4k costs almost $1000 more than a 3k Honda which is much quieter and I bet a 4k Honda if they made it would be comparable in price and you never hear about Honda issues, really.

[Grit_dog]

Definitely much less to go wrong, in the past, I agree.
But what was a bit disheartening, is this genny is basically brand new. 4 years old, but 9 hours on it and the seal on the board is compromised and the switch is obviously (now), very susceptible to water intrusion.

[mdcamping]

Grit dog wrote:
Which would have been tragic since it has now 9 whole hours on it and only been in my possession a week!
Pulling maintenance on our new to us camper, I changed the genny oil and decided the 4 years of dust and the oil I spilled needed to go. Because a clean generator is a happy one right?? Plus I’m OCD about stuff like that.
Gave it a once over since I’m not experienced with these built in Onans. Saw the control board front and center but it appeared to be sealed / potted in rubber.
Litttle spray with cycle wash everywhere and some de greaser on the oil spill and then hosed er down.
Miastake #1. Usually a run an engine while spraying/ cleaning it. Maybe a placebo maybe not. But I did not.
Mistake #2. The cheapo sealing job on the control board was coming apart on the edges.
Genny down for the count. Shorting out. Primer would go on by itself. Wouldn’t crank over .
Blowing air into the board it was bubbling soap water out the other side.
Pulled board out vacuum, compressed air etc. plugged back in temporarily. No go.
A little fiddling revealed the outside start switch would work sort of if pressure held on.
After doing that and getting it to start and heat up, problem is gone. I see a crack in the switch actually. So likely not all my issue with the water but nonetheless, a more important warning about the quality of the seal on the control board.

Somewhat off topic. Remember in the days of my youth before LED & control boards, I would remove the casings of old window A/C units, chemical spray the coils and power wash the ENTIRE unit clean. Let it bone dry for a couple of days in the sun, plug in the A/C and would fire up better than ever.

I don't think I would try that with today's appliances

Mike