Generator info
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:17 pm
It seems like this is the time of year for generator questions or problems. In an earlier post I had mentioned that sometimes my gen set would surge and wondered if anyone else had the same problem or a fix but did not get any answers. Today I went to the Cummin's dealer to pick up an air cleaner and fuel filter and had time to talk with a parts man that had been working on the Onan generators for over 20 years. He stated that most every problem with the gen set can be traced back to the carburator and showed me how small the air and fuel holes are in the throat of the carb. They are smaller in dia. then a thin lead pencil and it is no wonder that they plug up and restrict the air/fuel mixture. He said that you might be able to clean them but the best thing is to just replace the carb, ($138) I went ahead and bought the carb figuring that if I had to take the old one off and clean it I might as well go with new. I haven't put it on yet but the new air filter and fuel filter have reduced the surge and the gen is running pretty smooth with just those changes so I'm sure that when I add the new carb that all will be cured
Another question he answered was about oil weight and what to use in the cold weather and his answer was 5w30 until about spring and then go with 10w40.
While staying in a campground this summer I was informed that after 10 pm you couldn't use the gen because of the noise and I asked the parts guy if they made a muffler or something that could be put on and he came back with what he called a resonator. Most of us would call it a silencer because thats exactly what it looks like. It's about 12" long with an inlet hole the size of the gen tail pipe about 1 1/2" long then enlarges to about a 2 in diameter with the length about 9" then reduces back down to 1 1/2". It's made so that you can cut a section of your gen tailpipe out and basically splice the unit in like a muffler( old time "cherry bomb). I haven't installed it yet but just putting it on the end of the tailpipe made a world of difference. 10 feet away you couldn't even hear the generator except for the hum of the gen set. Cabin noise was also reduced. The parts guy said that it works very good on some units and not so good on others so he recomends that before purchasing that a person gets a unit and holds it to the tailpipe end of a running gen set to hear whether or not it silences the noise. Running in conjunction with the gen muffler, I don't think a person would have a problem running the gen all night long in a campground and not get one complaint.
The part # is as follows; inlet onan 3626 155 2449 and it costs about $27.
Another question he answered was about oil weight and what to use in the cold weather and his answer was 5w30 until about spring and then go with 10w40.
While staying in a campground this summer I was informed that after 10 pm you couldn't use the gen because of the noise and I asked the parts guy if they made a muffler or something that could be put on and he came back with what he called a resonator. Most of us would call it a silencer because thats exactly what it looks like. It's about 12" long with an inlet hole the size of the gen tail pipe about 1 1/2" long then enlarges to about a 2 in diameter with the length about 9" then reduces back down to 1 1/2". It's made so that you can cut a section of your gen tailpipe out and basically splice the unit in like a muffler( old time "cherry bomb). I haven't installed it yet but just putting it on the end of the tailpipe made a world of difference. 10 feet away you couldn't even hear the generator except for the hum of the gen set. Cabin noise was also reduced. The parts guy said that it works very good on some units and not so good on others so he recomends that before purchasing that a person gets a unit and holds it to the tailpipe end of a running gen set to hear whether or not it silences the noise. Running in conjunction with the gen muffler, I don't think a person would have a problem running the gen all night long in a campground and not get one complaint.
The part # is as follows; inlet onan 3626 155 2449 and it costs about $27.
(Actually that kind of makes sense since it would run okay as long as you held the switch down.)