Onan Generator Stalls

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
buffs94

buffs94

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2005
Posts
13
Location
Denver, CO
This is my first RV and I have an Onan 4.0 Genset. I've heard many people have experienced this same situation. I bought my RV used and the generator has only 400 hours on it. The generator ran perfect then all of a sudden one day it would stall after running for a few minutes. I've changed the air filter and cleaned out the fuel filter element. Same thing. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm sure this has happened to some of you. Thanks!
 
buffs94 said:
This is my first RV and I have an Onan 4.0 Genset. I've heard many people have experienced this same situation. I bought my RV used and the generator has only 400 hours on it. The generator ran perfect then all of a sudden one day it would stall after running for a few minutes. I've changed the air filter and cleaned out the fuel filter element. Same thing. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm sure this has happened to some of you. Thanks!
Click to expand...
It's possible that the carburetor (if it has one) is gunked up and needs to be cleaned thoroughly and possibly have new jet(s) installed.  Or the float may be out of adjustment.  I would recommend that you have a dealer go over the gen-set to check it out.
 
Hi and welcome to the group.

I've changed the air filter and cleaned out the fuel filter element.
Click to expand...

Since the RV is used I would suggest replacing the fuel filter.  Personally, I have doubts of the effectiveness of cleaning a fuel filter; instead, I would have changed it had it been me.

More importantly, how much fuel is in your main fuel tank?  An RV's fuel tank will have a separate pick-up in the tank which feeds the generator.  It is located higher up in the tank than the pick-up for the RV's engine.  If your tank fuel level drops to around 1/8 - 1/4 full the generator, in all likelihood, will stop running due to fuel starvation.  There is a good reason for that kind of setup: you really don't want to be out in the boondocks and have your generator empty your fuel tank.  If your fuel tank is more than 1/4 full then I suspect the problem is elsewhere.  There's numerous possibilities: spark plugs breaking down, points burned, capacitor bad, electronic circuit board breaking down under heat.  Etc.

Hope this helps.
 
If it is a LPG generator, did it stall at more or less the same altitude as previously used or did you started it at a higher altitude (let's say 4,000 feet or higher) ?

Roger
 
Thank you all. I will just bring it in to have it looked at. It sounds like there's just too many possibilities.  :)
 
buffs94 said:
This is my first RV and I have an Onan 4.0 Genset. I've heard many people have experienced this same situation. I bought my RV used and the generator has only 400 hours on it. The generator ran perfect then all of a sudden one day it would stall after running for a few minutes. I've changed the air filter and cleaned out the fuel filter element. Same thing. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm sure this has happened to some of you. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Was the Generator not run for an extended period of time before this occured?  How full is the coach fuel tank?  I would try putting some injector cleaner in the fuel tank and filling the tank.  Start the genset several times to see if this helps.  I actually put injector cleaner in a new fuel filter just before installing it on a friends RV that was have similar problems.  After several more attempts it ran fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,317 (members: 24, guests: 1,293)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,968
Posts
1,388,412
Members
137,721
Latest member
Dmac3003
Back
Top Bottom