Onan Generator Question

[Rich Biebel]

4KY's can last 2000-3000hrs or more if they are taken care of regularly...

Change the oil often is number one....

3 common problems on them....

Starters fail and sometimes lock up the engine making owners think the engine is seized....its the starter drive jamming in the blower wheel. The starter drive is plastic and wears out and breaks.

Newer style coil is a molded one piece magneto style coil. It has a very sharp bend out from under where its mounted. The wire fractures at that bend and the spark grounds out causing unit not to run or start and shut off. It's tricky to diagnose since when you look you might see what you think is a good ignition spark.....Its no good once it tries to fire the spark plug under compression...

Brushes wear out and unit won't run....Might have 600hrs on it or 1600....
I just did one with 600 for a racer.....

All these repairs require the machine to be removed from MH......Not a terribly difficult job but not a walk in the park either.

Older MH's are often way more difficult to remove the generator than newer MH's.....

I have 2 KY's myself.....Great little machines but they have some reliability issues.

I work on Onan's just about everyday during the spring-summer months....

[Bobby Fazio]

Great info Rich. Thank you!

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

4KY's can last 2000-3000hrs or more if they are taken care of regularly...

Change the oil often is number one....

3 common problems on them....

Starters fail and sometimes lock up the engine making owners think the engine is seized....its the starter drive jamming in the blower wheel. The starter drive is plastic and wears out and breaks.

Newer style coil is a molded one piece magneto style coil. It has a very sharp bend out from under where its mounted. The wire fractures at that bend and the spark grounds out causing unit not to run or start and shut off. It's tricky to diagnose since when you look you might see what you think is a good ignition spark.....Its no good once it tries to fire the spark plug under compression...

Brushes wear out and unit won't run....Might have 600hrs on it or 1600....
I just did one with 600 for a racer.....

All these repairs require the machine to be removed from MH......Not a terribly difficult job but not a walk in the park either.

Older MH's are often way more difficult to remove the generator than newer MH's.....

I have 2 KY's myself.....Great little machines but they have some reliability issues.

I work on Onan's just about everyday during the spring-summer months....