Onan 4000 watt RV generator Repairs, Service, and Common Problems

all right guys that was a fun trip back to uh Kentucky but I'm back on this Gray Hawk uh my next thing I'm gonna do is going to be working on the generator now when we did the AC replacement stairs still working I don't know if you guys heard it or not because it might be edited it out the generator is pretty slow to start but more importantly even without a load on it it's kind of surging a little bit now with the surging like that it can put out some bad voltage and some bad Cycles or hurts and of course that can damage our brand new AC unit we put on it can damage uh the converter or the battery charger microwave all the other electronic components too now these are carbureted there's not a lot of adjustments to be done on it you can drain out the fuel from the fuel bowl there you can adjust the throttle a little bit right there for the idle speed otherwise it's got a mechanical governor on it to keep it in the right range based on load now this uh Onan 4ky it's a 4000 Watt generator uh but even the bigger Emerald series like the 5500 or 6500 will have a carburetor on it and their biggest weakness is that uh most RV owners don't full time or user generator every month and those carburetors need it clogged up so Onan tells you need to run it at least an hour a month under a load but that's the bare minimum if you don't usually the shutoff valve right there that actually that's how it it shuts off fuel to the carburetor to turn the generator off gets clogged up because it's at the bottom of the carburetor Bowl itself or of course the float can start having issues some people will take these carburetors apart and rebuild them I've tried that a few times sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't sometimes hooking up Sea Foam as an input to the carburetor itself and then running the generator helps clean it out sometimes running it for hours and hours and hours helps clean out the system too it's just with all the additives that get put into fuel uh what happens is the fuel evaporates out of the bowl over time and it leaves a lot of Varnish in the carburetor itself so it's always almost really difficult to clean it after the fact like I said rebuilding a carburetor is possible but the seal between the bowl and the carburetor body itself sometimes leaks after you rebuild it and I don't know if you notice right below the carburetor is the actual uh engine like it's quite hot and a leaking fuel right onto the engine can cause fire and I don't want to be responsible for a fire so even though they're incredibly expensive I'm going to be changing out the carburetor which is kind of unfortunate because it does look like it's been changed out probably within the last year or two yes I do know these are very expensive like ridiculously expensive you can find them for about a quarter of the price on Amazon I have tried those three different times and those carburetors have caused me nothing but problems so they seem to have a metering issue the Machining inside of them whether it's the Jets or the needles I don't know what's wrong with them because they look identical on the outside just has caused me nothing but problems so I have a hard time ever recommending those you'll find some people that swear by them and they work just fine but three of them it's more than enough for me to say no to them I just get the manufacturer's direct replacement you can see the part number right there there's a 4ky usually two two models of them they have a fuel line intake right there and then some of them will have the evaporator hook up so that's usually the biggest difference so if there's one tube that's the standard one if there's two tubes that's the less standard one so we're just going to change that out really fast it's usually a pretty simple job unless the manufacturer didn't give you a lot of space right here if you're door ends right there that's where it gets really difficult but it can still be a little bit awkward and we're going to just go ahead and do a service while we're at it too the air filter let me go ahead and all right well the first thing we have to do is disconnect this fuel line right there I was just going to use my clamps right there to keep fuel from leaking but one thing I did notice this fuel line feels very uh rigid so if I take this off you'll see what I'm talking about normally the factory will have a pinch hose clamp on there instead of a screw hose clamp let me see if I can't show you what I'm talking about this would be a pinch style one when you put the tool on there and it pinches together to make make it tight instead of this other Style all right it's kind of hard to see but that fuel line is cracked on the inside of the liner right there so I don't want to reuse this fuel line because I don't want it to leak either so looks like I'm going to be replacing the fuel line luckily I happen to have new fuel line excellent now this fuel line goes underneath right here through this Loom underneath the generator controller there to the fuel pump which is right down there and of course that's the second most common failure point on a Onan generator is the fuel pump sometimes the first most common all right so the next step I'm going to do is disconnect the remote start harness which is all that this is right there after we disconnect the remote harness the next step is to disconnect the battery power so I'll just take that off I'm still going to wrap it around and tape just in case I get interrupted in the middle of this foreign I think it's just half inch now this is the uh ignition this is just the ignition solenoid so when you hit the start button it closes this up sends power down to the starter to start the whole thing up so that's the main battery light coming in okay so with that out of the way I'll just push it back through this opening there same thing with the remote harness can see me pushing it through all right that's the remote harness from that remote switch on the inside it's pretty simple you have a ground that feeds power to start or stop and then you have a power that comes out to engage the power meter and turn the light on on the switch all right using a T30 Torx bit this out of the way foreign see that fuel pump a lot easier now and that's the other end of the fuel line so my next step is to disconnect that hose clamp and obviously if we're talking about common failure points on an Onan generator this uh controller is the third most common failure point right here the ignition coil or the ignition solenoid not too much but this controller this potted board is usually the third number one common things that go bad and each one of those are surprisingly expensive that disconnected right there now we just need to feed a new line through shouldn't be too bad so just pull it out there now maybe you can see how to enter hose itself is cracking yeah I could have cut it back but if it's cracking there it's probably and it's not very pliable it's gonna probably just keep cracking so there's no reason not to replace it here we go I got my new quarter inch fuel line it's from Napa not a sponsor they're calling it quarter inch do you see it there I just have to feed it down through the loom Twisted it as I'm pushing it in and there we go easy peasy for it to be on this way but I might as well put a new hose clamp on right that one looks a little bit funny new hose clamp fuel pump I just have to tighten up that hose clamp all right that's pretty tight I feel comfortable with that next up we might as well just do the carburetor there's only uh two bolts that come down the side of the carburetor I don't know if you guys can see it or not these are the bolts right there they'll come through right on the intake side here let me get a flashlight so you can see the ball head there and then there now it's 10 millimeter I normally just put the whole thing together put it down in there and get on the bolt head itself power battery powered ratchet will be a lot right sure foreign [Music] this is honestly the hardest part it's just because you can't see the bolts that you're trying to get through oh I guess it's not true putting the gasket on through the bolts is kind of the hard part too [Music] all right so now you kind of just use your socket to pull the bolt out there's that one this one's kind of nice because you can see it really easily grab it with your fingers now the best thing to do is to have your camera ready and take a picture of everything but before we drop this I just need to undo the ground here actually it's gonna be a star washer there so don't lose the star washer that's the ground for that fuel cutoff valve and pull out that Bolt and now we're going to pull the whole carburetor out this is where you want to use a camera take a picture of all your linkage rods that and how they're installed in there all right so with that carburetor out of the way now I can undo the Spade connector for that fuel shutoff valve using some needle nose and take off that throttle Street in the spring tilt it and then this is where you want to make sure that your choke is uh everything lined up this choke is obviously kind of the problem putting it back in too uh but this choke goes over here to there's a adjustment right there for the choke don't ever touch that it's probably fine it's a exhaust we'll heat up the the bi-metal choke in there and then it'll move that linkage to adjust the choke but that's it this part is not part of the carburetor so definitely take that off and everybody wants to look inside of it there's not much to see in there and these are really incredibly simple carburetors they just don't like to be rebuilt but I know I'm sure a lot of you guys have had pretty good luck with that I haven't so the new carburetor is going to be right here it does come with instructions I don't need those comes with a sticker for the right oil filter or right air filter to put on it to retrofit back to comes with an envelope of gaskets here there's a few different style ones just match those up and here's the carburetor itself like I said not too much to look at here new carburetor right here get the choke just gonna fit on double fit pretty simple get the throttle that goes to Governor right there pop that back through the return spring in position and the whole thing's gonna go in place but don't forget we need to hopefully plug in that power feed first because it is difficult to do because it's so short after the fact on these Spade connectors I do always like to look underneath and make sure that the actual Mel part didn't go underneath there sometimes it bends down so I do want to make sure it did go into the female side of the Spade connector and it did so that was pretty straightforward get that back out of the way okay no I joke but it does actually tell you which gasket goes where it is important to put it in the right position now first gas is going to be the biggest one because it's going to be able to fit around that choke so what I'm gonna do is first get one of these bolts started through the air filter housing the bolt right there and now you can get the gasket you can punch it through right there pull it back a little bit and get the carburetor through there and now it's kind of supported in place all right we're half the battle's done you put the new gaskets on this spacer I'm just gonna use my Razor scraper make sure you guys are seeing this a lot and I'm just going to take the old gasket off on both sides small gasket there hook it in put the bolt through inner spacer pull the bolt back a little bit and close this Rod a little bit so the throttle body or the butterfly valve out of the way you can push that through so another spacer or insulator that they're calling it is held in place because the Bolt's going through it now we just have the glass gasket put in put in the same way it's it's just a little bit of work I'm gonna push it all through I'm just using my socket on an extension right there I'm just going to keep lighting everything up don't want to make it tight because we don't have the back one in yet pretty good right there another bolt and basically just line up all the gaskets it'll be a little bit tedious lighting everything up but it'll work I'm just gonna run this in by hand I think we're captured it feels like it's screwing it thank you all right the last one tight just check the other one one more time make sure nothing changed all right still nice and tight because I'm doing a generator service too we're gonna add a new foreign air filter there's your part number for the 4ky has a foam gasket on that one side and with everything out of the way it's not too difficult to push on put in place and hold in place with a unscrew or thumb nut okay before I hook up the fuel line and cut it to size let's go ahead and put the ground back on the eye Loop okay we're good there that's what I'm gonna do is put the fuel line back on again cut it to fit and cut it right about there set my tubing cutter it is better to use a small hose clamps too uh if you use a bigger ones more like a one inch clamp it'll start to deform it won't clamp very well okay so we're pretty good on that like I said this is where you drain out the carburetor fuel bowl so if you are going to store this for a period of time without running the generator definitely drain the fuel out get just a little cup right there to cut catch the feel that comes out like I said mostly you never have to adjust anything on here if you start fiddling with things you're going to probably start causing more problems if it's not running right it's likely going to be the carburetor or the fuel pump itself uh let's go ahead and put this back together it has a crazy little foot right there that supports it in the back it'll fit down into a slot right there I don't know if you can see it I hope you can kind of see the tab going through that slot there and we'll put the screws back in just The Grommet right there that I'm gonna be coming through it's usually easy to do the remote harness first because it's the big plug okay put that to the side hook up the battery cable make sure that one laid behind there didn't fall off because without that your generator won't run either because that's battery powered to the controller all right go ahead and hook up the remote harness back again let me go hook the battery back up again now before we start it we can push and hold the stop button right here fuel pump should turn on and that'll fill up the fuel in the carburetor you hear the fuel pump running it sounds like it's quackity clack it's probably out of fuel go to start it well that started up a little bit nicer that time didn't you wouldn't you think it didn't crank crank crank crank crank not a lot of surging after it started but I mean I also know is hidden right behind right here this little toggle switch that's the circuit breaker if you're running the generator you never get any power inside make sure that breaker that's the 110 circuit breaker didn't trip you can usually read it when it's in the off position because off is away from you but when it's on it's towards you and you can't read it because it's mounted right there it should be like right there but I didn't Design This Arrow even a little bit and onan's had it that way for 20 years so that was changing out the carburetor on an Onan 4ky pretty straightforward pretty standard uh mechanical work but I also still have to do a generator service so let me go ahead and fire this thing up we'll get it hot it's pretty simple service because there's no oil filter on this okay put that door back on the generator I'm letting the generator warm up so we can do an oil change but while we're doing that might as well go ahead and check the voltages coming out of the generator voltages there all right so they're set up for ac voltage we're coming out at 123. not too bad it's a little bit high but we don't have a load on it if we go to our Cycles we're at 62. so let me go ahead and fire up a kind of a load [Music] all right AC just kicked in and look at that kicks down to 60. it's not too bad we go back to our voltage is 121. it's pretty pretty dead on so I think we did pretty well there let's go ahead and turn the generator off but that's definitely the advantage of using a known in carburetor you really should not have to adjust it after the fact all right so I got the door back off of it again now remember this is air cooled so you shouldn't run a generator very long without the door on otherwise it won't cool properly there is no oil filter on this it just says about two quarts of oil I'll be using Napa 1540 uh because I'm in the desert that's what's recommended I had to drain it out underneath right here there's a little access door with those Torx screws on it I'm just going to take one of them all the way up and then loosen up the other one swing it out of the way that gives access to the drain plug 's only uh 9 16 pay no attention to that that's another job I'm doing we'll pull this out my drain pan underneath step off hopefully it'll drain a little bit better now all right so it's all done draining now personally I don't think it's vital to reseal up this drain plug but because I'm going to put this on the internet for everybody to see and it did have a little bit of pipe dope on it add a little bit of pipe dope to it all right feel pretty good about that now I don't want to put that door back together underneath yet because I do want to check and make sure it doesn't leak obviously so the next step is going to be to fill it up when it comes to the oil change I think filling this thing up might actually be one of the more difficult parts everybody said it takes about two quarts it's actually about a quart and three quarters I put a towel right there just to catch anything it'll take the first Court pretty easily okay so it takes the first quart really easily and yes I could be using a funnel here I won't deny that but I kind of find the funnel to get in the way sometimes because it takes too long to drain so it'll start to overflow pretty easily on the second Court feel it oh see I went over the top see how fast that went the there to put this in might be hard to see we're still right about there now even if I screw it in it'll still be low you guys can see that there too and I still have about half a quart left in here so or if you get really good at it you do a small stream of oil and just don't let it go over the top usually about the time it stops reseeding and stays on the threads that's about when you're done now if you're RV is equipped with Jacks you can jack up whatever side is the outside so that tilts a little better I have done that but definitely do not accidentally bump that right there because it will crank the engine and it'll shoot a whole bunch of oil right in your face put that in it's reading four I don't know if you guys can see that it's fool put the cap back on you can see I still have about a quarter of a quart left I'm gonna run it and make sure it's not leaking underneath or anywhere else and then we'll be done okay let's go ahead and check our oil level one more time okay we're gonna call that good don't forget we need two access door back up foreign air filter housing back on and don't worry I was looking for fuel leaks at the fuel pump too and it was running that way I need to clean up my mess [Music] of course don't forget to properly dispose of your waste oil but that was a pretty those were pretty easy tasks all put together that was just uh changing out the fuel line from the carburetor down to the fuel pump changing out the carburetor itself doing a complete Generator Service both oil and air filter no oil filter on this one on an Onan 4K generator definitely feel like it's a job most anybody should be able to do and while you could probably rebuild the carburetor like I said I can't be responsible for burning somebody's RV down or the loss of life so I feel better about doing it that way it's also much more unlikely to have problems down the road again provided that you do run it at least an hour a month under a load like I said if you have to store this thing for over a month without running it definitely make sure you drain that fuel bowl out I know some people will say just add a fuel stabilizer to it but adding it to the fuel tank doesn't mean that it's getting into the carburetor so it's very difficult to know if it ever got into the carburetor and I don't trust it because either it works and you're good or it didn't work and you need a new carburetor you feel confident doing yourself I'll put the part numbers for the air filters and of course the carburetor in the description but I think the next video might be looking at a nice luxury bus thanks a lot for watching guys enjoy yourself and you guys if you're ever doing this and you're taking this wing nut off and you drop it down below into that controller and underneath let me tell you I feel you I've done that many times too it's a very frustrating situation so don't feel too bad if you've done that too all right okay I didn't point it out if it does have a pinch uh hose clamp on it like that I normally just go ahead and carefully using some diagonal cutters right here I will pry it out just by using that one little Notch right there they're probably underneath and then just pre pull that out it's loose and you can pull it off that's generally how I get rid of these of course I guess if you're replacing the carburetor you could just cut the fuel line and not have to worry about that but in the fuel line gets shorter foreign and then I'll just assume that uh half the people are gonna say you should use teflon tape and maybe I should have I don't know now don't forget to do the important thing as a mechanic Goblin save the old carburetor because you never know you might need it in 10 years right put that safely right next to uh his big brother

Channel: AZ Expert

Views: 67,577

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Id: fIlZTkBO5M8

Length: 32min 46sec (1966 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022