Dad's Generator Just Died

[Mike058]

He ran it 2 hours in October and November. He tried to run it a couple of days ago and it started, ran for 30 seconds then quit. Starter runs strong but it's not even trying to catch and start. We checked for spark (it sparks) and gas flows from the petcock. It's a portable gas Onan and I believe they have some kind of fuel shutoff solenoid. At least there's something that looks like a solenoid sticking out of the bottom of the carburetor. We're going to take it in and have it checked out Thursday (it's still under warranty) but I was wondering if anybody else has had a problem.

 

[Travelover]

Sounds like a fuel problem. If you have old fuel in it, the repair might not be covered under warranty. If you can, drain the tank and carburetor bowl and use fresh gasoline to retry to start it.

 

[blueriver]

OIL? mine has an automatic shut off if the oil is low ...

 

[whistlepig]

If gas sits too long it can gum up and turn to "varnish". And that's what it looks like. Hardened varnish. It's solid and gas won't cut it. Only carburator cleaner will cut it. And as mentioned mine has a low oil shut off also. No alarms or bells. It just quits running.

 

[Mike058]

Forgot to mention the oil was full and he's only had it since September. The four hours is the total running time. I didn't ask him how long he'd had the gas he put in it though. I hope it was reasonably fresh

 

[whistlepig]

Sure sounds like an Onan problem.

 

[Mike058]

It was a stuck float in the carburetor. Fixed under warranty.

 

[bontai_Joe]

Did they say what caused the float to stick? Maybe varnished up from older gas? Gasoline, or more correctly E10 (10% alcohol) doesn't store as well as "real" gasoline did. All you can do is add some sort of stabilizer to the fuel and ocassionally run it dry and replace with fresh fuel periodically.

 

[Mike058]

They didn't elaborate- machine was only 4 months old and had been running fine a month before. Didn't use any old gas in it. They said they'd had a lot of problems with this model-Just a defective carburetor I imagine. I did put a dose of seafoam in the tank just to prevent real problems in the future though.

Did they say what caused the float to stick? Maybe varnished up from older gas? Gasoline, or more correctly E10 (10% alcohol) doesn't store as well as "real" gasoline did. All you can do is add some sort of stabilizer to the fuel and ocassionally run it dry and replace with fresh fuel periodically.