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D_E_Bishop's avatar
D_E_Bishop
Explorer
Mar 26, 2018

Onan HGJAB901A failure

On 09-27-17 I post regarding a failure of my genny(Prior Post ). I finally exhausted all my DIY resources and took it to an authorized dealer for trouble shooting and repair. The tech there found the the armature lower bearing failed and allowed the armature to drop enough that the brushes were riding on the phenolic holder of the slip rings.

He did a complete tune up as well as replacing the armature and brushes, $2300 plus. Took the rig back to his shop and he reinstalled the genny and it ran fine, for a week.

Of course we were at Hi Jolly CG in Quartzsite in January when this happened. Took the rig back, he removed the genny and tore into it. His diagnosis is that the armature is sitting too low in the frame and the brushes are marginally off the slip rings and it shuts down due to low voltage output but throws a low oil pressure code #23. In Oct, Nov, and Dec, it ran fine during the monthly half to one hour at 50 percent load run.

He put a new armature in and same problem, tried two more and same problem. Onan engineers were at his shop and they are at a loss. He has the engineers drawings and specifications from Onan and the bearings on each of the four replacement armatures are too far up on the shaft. His solution is to have the upper housing with the brush holders machined enough to make the brushes ride on the slip rings.

Onan techs and engineers have looked at the genny and measured everything with micrometers and cannot understand why the armatures are riding too low.

He is supposed to have a decision on repairs from the engineers this week, yeah like I'm going to believe that. I don't know if he has considered that the lower housing where the bearing sits is worn or was manufactured out of specs or something like that. It is falling into that old definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem or not. He has said that this is a "A" generator, meaning it was made the first year or so of manufacturing. I don't know what bearing that might have. Including labor, it would over $6000 to replace the **** thing and I can't see any reason for me to replace it if, they are supplying replacement parts that don't meet their specs.

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