$600 carburator

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
Hard to see the jet in the bottom of the bowl unless it is out. I took it out and it is clean, as is the bowl now since I ran it thru the cleaner. The Onan tech said to spray carb cleaner up the stem, I did and it sprays out the throat of the carb, so fuel must be getting thru there as well. I dropped the entire carb minus gaskets I could remove in the ultrasonic cleaner and dried. The needle valve is working as it should.

The Onan tech was convinced it was the jet in the bowl that was clogged. He put fuel in a bottle and stuck the bottle to the bottom of the stem and said the gen ran. I didn't see this, I was not there. He also replaced the controller he thought was defective to no avail.

I'm going to stick it back on as soon as I do a little more research into the carb numbers.  The gen has a prime even tho WGO does not explain that function. So I can prime which fills the bowl before I start.

There does not seem to be jets listed on the web.  My Numbers are;

8623932
C222043
3X07

stamped just like that on the carb body. So that must be the Nikki numbers, I need to know the Onan or replacement numbers. Not sure if that is one long number or a number and a date code.  Thanks Onan for being so helpful.

I do agree that this is water or alcohol damage. 
 
Mfreyder said:
It would almost start, but not come to an idle and kill. It pulls fuel from the MH fuel tank so adding anything to the fuel is out of the question.
Click to expand...
  You can make a 1 gallon temp tank out of a gas can and try to run some sea foam. If any thing is getting thur it will clean it up. If it clogged you will have to take it apart and tank soak it.
 
Carburetor back on and it runs for about 20 seconds and chokes out. I looked on line for Seafoam and all i see are aerosols, does it come in a bottle to poor into gas?  Do you just spray the aerosol into a container and poor into a gas can? I'm about to make a trip to AutoZone.

Mike
 
Mfreyder said:
Carburetor back on and it runs for about 20 seconds and chokes out. I looked on line for Seafoam and all i see are aerosols, does it come in a bottle to poor into gas?  Do you just spray the aerosol into a container and poor into a gas can? I'm about to make a trip to AutoZone.

Mike
Click to expand...

http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Foam-SF-16-Motor-Treatment/dp/B0002JN2EU

You can also get it at Walmart or most auto parts stores.
 
Thanks, I found it at AutoZone. I mixed about 6oz in a 1/2 gal of gas and ran it thru. After cleaning the carb in the ultrasonic cleaner, I put it back on and it was able to idle but very rough. It has output, but once connected to a 4amp load it dies. I ran the fuel mixture thru after fighting to get the WGO hose clamp off. No improvement in the idle. It did idle smooth one time after I pushed the throttle slightly closed by hand. It cranks right up but still idles rough. I think there is still some trash lodged some where.

Having zero experience with Seaform, I had no idea of the mixture ratio. The can only offered a max 50/50 ratio.

But hey, on the bright side, I pulled my 5 year old 7500w Briggs and Stratton gen out of the garage, and it started right up.  Ran it for 20 minutes while I worked on the Onan. Electric heater as a load, worked great and it only cost $900.

I've considered converting this unit to propane with a Snorkel kit. As little as we use it, the 13 gal propane tank we have on board would be fine.

I see three options here. 1) buy a new carb. $175 EBay 2) convert to propane $200*, 3) ditch the Onan and buy anything else.

* have not confirmed a kit for Onan.

Thanks to all who offered constructive solutions. I'll post how it comes out.
 
sounds like it is starving for fuel. I think you have an electric solenoid on the bottom or side that shuts off fuel to the main jet. This may not be opening fully, they will get sticky when ethanol separates and sits in the bottom of the bowl. When you hooked up the 1/2 gallon of fuel were you still using the existing fuel filter and fuel pump and is there a way to use something like a fuel tank from a boat so it could be elevated above the generator. That would eliminate the fuel pump and filter. I hate to see you abandon a nearly new generator especially since all engines have problems with carbs filling with gunk.  Just a thought but did you set the float bowl level when you reassembled it?
 
No solenoid on this carb, I have seen others that have one, this one does not. I could not get to the needle valve. Part of this throw away design is to hammer in the pin that the float pivots on. I did blow thru the gas intake and operate the float to see if it was opening and closing, worked fine to me.

I'm not a carb expert, in fact I thought I died and went to heaven when I first bought a fuel injected car. With the air filter off I ran it and every time it killed it spit fuel out the intake, I thought this would indicate too much fuel or maybe a air jet was clogged. Not sure.

I found that Snorkel makes a kit with an auto primer option. I have someone I'll call to look at it before I throw in the towel. My concern is this will not be the last time I have to deal with it, I'd rather have propane or another gen that is not so hard to deal with. If the carb had been reasonable $150 say, it would have been a done deal and we would not have posted a word.

Mike
 
  I sympathize with your situation and agree that 600 bucks is way out of line. Many of the small engines share a common carb, the one listed for my Gravely mower is over $300 however the same one can be bought for $42. It is listed for a different engine but is the same. May be worth a try, I googled your numbers and came up with several for less than $100 but would not know the configuration or bolt pattern.
 
Hi Will, you must be way better at google than me, i broke the number into several searches and never came up remotely with anything that looked like a carb.

The only link I found was this one, it is the same looking carb, not that it means anything, but I don't see the KV designation on anything.  The number on the carb is a Nikki, and this number is Onan. Never did I see a way to cross reference.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Onan-146-0705-KV-KVC-KVD-RV-Generator-Carburetor-/321667064954?hash=item4ae4d9e47a:g:8VUAAOSwLVZVztG0&vxp=mtr

Thanks for the interest.
Mike
 
I've also found a propane conversion kit that will work on the Microlite 2800 from US Carbuertion which would eliminate a problem carb and run on propane.

Anyone see any pitfall to making this dual fuel and running on propane?

Mike
 
Mfreyder said:
It would almost start, but not come to an idle and kill. It pulls fuel from the MH fuel tank so adding anything to the fuel is out of the question.
Click to expand...
Well actually you can run a hi concentration of cleaner /seafoam through your generator without treating your main tank. I use a 5 gal gas can and enough gas line to easily reach the fuel pump on the generator. Disconnect the main fuel line and use the "auxiliary"tank.
Bill
 
Thanks Gary, I saw in the specs of the Onan sheet that their LP units produced less power. Mine currently is rated at 23.3 amps. Loosing 3 amps would not hurt too much. Was not sure if there were other design changes in play other than just LP. I think they call the LP unit a 2600w. My biggest concern is running the AC for the dog when we stop other than a CG. 2600w should be able to handle that. As is we can not power the AC and microwave on gen power. We have a Surge Guard so I monitor current draw all the time.

I think we can handle a few less amps for using LP in lieu of gas. As long as the cons don't start to pile up beyond that.

Mike
 
Mfreyder said:
I'm not a carb expert, in fact I thought I died and went to heaven when I first bought a fuel injected car. With the air filter off I ran it and every time it killed it spit fuel out the intake, I thought this would indicate too much fuel or maybe a air jet was clogged. Not sure.

Mike
Click to expand...

One more thing to look at, with the bowl off look at the bottom of the stem and see if the plug has come out. It plugs off the machining hole that is made when they made the passage for the fuel from the jet to the intake. If it's not there it will pull fuel out of the bottom of the bowl and you will get fuel coming out of the intake like you have now. If it's missing take a piece of rubber fuel line and trim it down until it fits into the hole tight.

Denny

ModEdit: Fixed quote tag -LS
 
Thanks Denny, I've put this project on hold, the boss has me doing other things until next week. I'll take a look, but I don't recall a plug there, so one might be missing! It's all back together and installed right now.

Mike
 
  One of the companies i used to work for had all of their welding machines and work trucks converted to propane. The welders ran great, in fact I have two of them here that were built in the 70's. The trucks were fine but the lack of HP showed. Especially when you got stuck on a construction site.
 
I think we can handle a few less amps for using LP in lieu of gas. As long as the cons don't start to pile up beyond that.
Click to expand...

The other "con" is simply that it sucks a lot of propane, so you need a hefty supply tank. Most of us are more accustomed to thinking of propane in 'pounds' rather than 'gallons' and appliances that sip vapor, so it comes as a surprise when the genset empties the tank quickly. Consumption will be in the vicinity of 1/3 - 1/2 gal/hour, depending on the electrical load.
 
Good point Gary, so besides being less efficient in producing power, it consumes more fuel to not do so. The Oman manual list at half load the gas engine uses .35 gph. The LP version uses 1.66 pph. 4.11 pounds per gallon at 77 deg. That's .4 gph for LP if my math is correct. If I'm using it and running the AC it is more than likely hotter than 77. More like 90, so consumption would be slightly more? Or less? The article I read says propane expands 1.5% per 10 degree increase in temp. So maybe at colder temps more LP is used because at colder temps there is less in the tank? Confusing. Or at colder temps the LP is compressed and more can be loaded in the tank?

It turns out LP is not that bad, but consumes more. My 13 gallon tank will normally be filled with 10 gallons (80%) so I can expect 20 hours of run time. Roughly. Would get a lot more on the 24 gallon gas tank, but since I have had the Trend for 18 months and only racked up 21 hours on the generator a tank of propane will last a year at my normal use!???

My old MH had a 55 gallon gas tank so running the gen was a no brainer. I already added an "extend a stay" adapter to the tank, for use with grill, so it makes the adding of a 20# tank easy, or somewhat easy depending on what that means to people.
 
Hi Will, so I would guess the more cylinders the worse the loss in horse power. I'm hoping the LP will make the engine last longer as a pro to counter act the cons of lower HP and higher (slightly) fuel consumption. I still see this as a go on the conversion.

If I were to carry a portable and ditch the Onan, I would still have it dual fuel. Worse case I have to carry a 20# bottle in the tow car, and not an entire gen.

There would be a huge benefit to removing the Onan altogether I have not mentioned so far, weight. This thing comes in a 125# and it is 18" aft of the rear axle. On a diesel pusher that means nothing, but on a little frame chassis with a rear axle weight gross of 5300 it means a lot. Empty my rear axle weight is almost 4800, add water, food, people, and some waste in the tanks which are all the way in the rear and the weight will be close to max if not over. And that does not count on pulling a trailer with 160# of tongue weight on occasions. WGO should have installed it anywhere between the axles and left the spare in the rear.

So weight, and location plays into my calculation on getting rid of it or keeping it. If I can run it on propane and not have to deal with float bowl issues, its a keeper, if not or any more major issues with the Onan, it's history simply for the weight CCC issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,094 (members: 17, guests: 1,077)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,934
Posts
1,387,761
Members
137,684
Latest member
kstoybox
Back
Top Bottom