Onan 5000w generator problems 2000 Adventurer

[Heavensplan]

Hi all, I am a RV owner of a 2000 Winnebago Adventurer. I am not new to RV camping but have a gen set that was working great but had a bad starter. Replaced the starter and start solenoid. But now it will not work at all even with 12 volts at the solenoid. There was a person that had a similar problem as mine but never heard what he did.

[Eagle5]

Greetings Heavensplan,
You can see the on-line manuals for Onan here:
https://www.cummins.com/generators/r...erator-manuals
This fourteen year old Thread has some great diagnostic things to try:
https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...deas-3493.html
This Thread is a year older still, but also has some diagnostic ideas of worth:
https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...ver-40373.html
Welcome to the forum.
Eagle5

[Heavensplan]

I replaced the electric fuel pump, both breakers, new board, relay ,starter, plugs, filter. The Generator ran good before the starter went out. But the other things I replaced were original and needed replaced. The oil filter and air filter was never replaced. It was a mess. But now I have 12 volts at the relay but no response. Thank you for all your help!

[Eagle5]

Do you have a precise voltage at the solenoid? It seems like if it just 12.0 VDC, there might be a bad connection to consider. If you have 13.2 VDC, then perhaps you have a bad starter? Is the starter the only part you haven't replace yet? (ha-ha) Sometimes the solution is right in front of us.
Good luck; Eagle5.

[Heavensplan]

Thank you for your post! The voltage at the relay is 13 .2. But no relay sound, I did jumper at the solenoid to the starter and the starter did work.

[Heavensplan]

I did not see my number, 5BGFFA26100P, Ser. C000070063. I guess it is too old, it is on my 2000 Winnebago Adventurer 32V. I appreciate all your help, there was a person that had the same problem as I have. But I don't know how he fixed it either.

[Morich]

We don't get the best info on the chassis side of the wiring, so a bit of guessing is needed!
Bear with me a bit and see if we can get close?
I need to ask some questions to get on the right level to explain what I think might have happened.

Are you familiar with the way a starter solenoid works on cars or the generator? They are much the same idea but different shape. Does your starter solenoid in the genset have two small wires that act as controls for closing the solenoid contacts and then there is one big battery cable that brings 12Volt in and it is passed on through to the starter motor when the contacts close?

When you say you have 12volts at the solenoid, I'm guessing you mean on the big cable? That would seem to be the cable bringing power to move the starter motor.
But when you say you hear nothing like the solenoid moving? Those solenoids are what you may have heard on cars as a click, click, click, when the car won't start?
I think you should also hear some sort of click, even if lower, when the solenoid moves to close the contacts.
I think there will be two sets of wires at the solenoid. The big one from the cable but also the small control wires from the switch to tell it to stop or start.
I feel you are missing that control signal to tell the solenoid to move and close the big contacts inside!

But part of the trouble is that we don't get much good info on the chassis wiring and we have to sort of feel our way along.

Can you spot a connection/plug that might fit this drawing and wires?
Click these snips to get a better view!


It shows in the generator compartment but no idea if on top, side, or where!
If you can find the three green wires and one purple, that is likely to be the right plug.
Winnebago does label the small wires to help ID them, so you may find this helps.


We also have this chart to "decode" the ID!
https://www.winnebago.com/Files/File...ical_guide.pdf

What I would want to check is that you are getting the signal passed from the start/stop switch inside and down to the control wires at the solenoid?
I can't trace it back far enough nor get a good idea from the idea but I "feel" wire LL should bring ground down to this plug when you push the start switch! Possible it could be battery however as I don't get a lot of the chassis wiring to tell for sure!
Check first for battery showing up there if you can find it when somebody pushes the switch. Then if not seeing battery show, check for it being ground sent in. Check first for battery to avoid blowing a fuse in the meter???

Bottom line is that I think you are not getting the start signal sent to make the solenoid close to make the starter turn!
If solenoid is not moving, that will be first step to getting the starter to move!

[Heavensplan]

I want to thank you so much for your time and knowledge. I will try this test as soon as I can. It is raining here in Kentucky for the last 2 days and tomorrow maybe snow. Thank you again!

Like I stated, it was all working but the starter was really bad and had to be replaced. After I installed the starter it was all dead and would not work the starter. I thought maybe the stater was bad so I connected the battery from the 12 volts wire and the starter worked fine.

But there was no 12 volts coming to the relay. Plus no power to the start switch in the RV. I contacted a RV dealer and he said the printed circuit board was bad so I ordered it and installed it still no power at the generator start switch.

Thank you so much for your help!

[Morich]

I do not know generators all that well so take this as a thought to check and see if it might be helpful?
We often think of the switch as used to cut power and that is often what it does, sop we check for power there.
BUT? There are times when a switch is connect6ing to a board and they do different things with the switch. There are times when the board is built to change when ground is put on or off a lead.
It is part of the drawings that we don't get lots of info on and might need to be checked to see what the switch has coming in to switch.

We don't know what the switch connects to on the generator, except for the wire ID from Winnebago. We get this as the wires to the plug on the generator from the switch.
Click for better view!



I think this is showing us that there is a big chassis wiring plug through the floor on left side that then leads to the generator wiring for starting!
The ID shows wire LL is for starting, LM for stopping and the other two for indicator lights (maybe at the panel?)

What it doesn't show us is where that big plug on the chassis side goes or what the wires do??
Maybe wire LL goes to a fuse that is blown and that explains not seeing power at the switch?
Maybe that wire LL should connect through the chassis plug to give ground to other parts of the circuit?

Maybe there is a blown fuse not found yet? I would expect that to be out under the hood and with other fuses like horn, lights, etc. for the chassis?
Just a guess there and we get no real good info to tell us once it goes into the chassis wiring! ARRGH! No help at all on that....

But something else that might be easier to check would be the wires at the switch? If you find no power at the switch, is it possible you would find ground and they are switching ground instead of power to make the solenoid work?

Just throwing out ideas that you might want to check on. Maybe you get lucky and something begins to make sense?
Running short of other ideas!

[Heavensplan]

Thank you so much and I will check a little more. Like I said earlier it worked fine until the starter stopped working.

[Morich]

Since it turns okay when you short across the solenoid, it sounds like it is some small problem in the parts that tell the solenoid to move??
Does this generator have a switch directly on it to let you start it there, rather than the switch inside?

[Heavensplan]

Yes it does and I did replace the circuit board. Plus the breakers were bad. But it worked great before the starter went bad. Thank you for your help which I need.

[Morich]

We all need some help!
Whether we admit it or not is often the big question???


Just as a random thought, it might tell you a small bit if the generator has a start button right on it, if it worked and the switch inside did not, it might lead to thinking more toward the switch inside or wiring to it might be the problem?

If there are two switches and NIETHER work, then it would seem odd for both to have gone out at the same time and make me try to find some item that was common to make both fail at the same time.

Trying to play some kind of better odds but not getting enough real info to go far!
More like wandering around!

[Heavensplan]

It has one switch, it was on the old board that I replaced. I replaced it because it had a burt spot on it. I will be looking for a fuse on the line that comes from the generator to the front of the RV. I appreciate your ideas and thank you for responding.