I've been pestering Dr. Ken H with Onan questions for a couple weeks now. Kind of a long story.

The Onan ran pretty good. It had a prime switch inside that didn't appear to do anything.

When Rob Mueller was here we decided to install my Bovee Pertronics kit. The FIRST thing we did was make sure it started and ran OK and we did this FROM THE ONAN BOARD BY PUSHING THE START button. The only other thing we did was disconnect the switched ground from the points. We also investigated the prime button and found a fuse holder with no fuse it in. Once we put in a fuse, the prime light came on and pushing the button caused the fuel pump to work. YEAH!

When the Pertronics module was working and hooked up correctly, I pushed the start button. NOTHING. Not a click, not a sound. NOTHING. So I start looking at things. Jump 5-9 and the fuel pump runs. Ground the S terminal on the starter solenoid K1 and nothing happens. Jump 12V from the 12 Lug to the spade lug beside it and the starter cranks. Humm, bad KI.

That and the start switch not working (no measured ground to the S terminal on K1, it appears that BOTH the starter solenoid AND the circuit board are sick. By this time, it's last Friday and I managed to get in touch with Nick at Applied and he shipped out a new board and solenoid.

In the meantime, Ken told me he had opened up the solenoids before and so I did and once I cleaned off some corrosion, it was working. Yea! So I put it back on and now I can jump to ground on the S terminal and the motor will crank. About this time, I realized that the INSIDE start button would crank the motor but it would only start if 5-9 was jumpered (fuel pump running) and only stop if the jumper was removed.

So today the boards came in and I put the new board in first thing. Expecting the motor to fire right up, I was a bit confused and disappointed when NOTHING happened. I can still ground the S terminal on K1 and it will turn over. There are no lugs on the new board and I was unable to get 5-9 jumped. So I replaced the old board and fired it up...only to have it running like crap. Turns out the rear plug wasn't firing. On a hunch, I replaced the plugs and it runs fine.

Oh, I took the fuse out of the 'prime' button because that was the ONLY thing that Rob and I did.

So here is the situation. I've gone from an Onan that run fine, to one that runs fine but has to be jumpered to make run and will only start from inside. At this point, I'm about out of time and don't want to fix it until it won't run at all .

The plan is that we won't need it on the way to Wisconsin. If so, I'll have to set the jumper, run back inside and start it, the go back outside to shut it off. Not optimal but we shouldn't need it on the trip.

I'm HOPING that some of the Onan gurus like Ken Burton, Ken Henderson, and others TBD can help me get it worked out at the Rally. U am pretty confused that the new board didn't work. It is the version with the built in wiring harness and the connector will only go one way.

I passed my level of electronics knowledge about a week back.

Thoughts or comments are welcome but, as I said, I don't have much more time to devote to it if I expect to get my punch list completed.

... Relatively unknown method is pin 6. This disables the generator running and low oil pressure functions but maintains BOTH the start AND STOP functions of the board. As the lower pin 6 is right next to pin 9, a short one inch jumper can be left in place with the cover on and genset pushed back in the "Onan-hole." Be aware that if you try to start the generator but it doesn't start, there will still be power to the pump and ignition until you press "stop." While all methods keep the power on pin 9, it is just easier to forget without a wire hanging off the generator.

6-9 still runs the fuel pump and would have to be manually hooked up every time.
HOWEVER, Bdub had a suggestion to see if it ran if the prime button was held down. It does run as long as the prime button is held down. I could easily change the momentary prime button to a on/off switch and not have to go to the drawer.

HOWEVER, I noticed something odd, If I press the stop button while the Onan is still running, the red light in the switch comes on AND the Onan keeps running. What the heck is that about????

Kerry Pinkerton wrote on Fri, 05 September 2014 12:34

6-9 still runs the fuel pump and would have to be manually hooked up every time.
HOWEVER, Bdub had a suggestion to see if it ran if the prime button was held down. It does run as long as the prime button is held down. I could easily change the momentary prime button to a on/off switch and not have to go to the drawer.

HOWEVER, I noticed something odd, If I press the stop button while the Onan is still running, the red light in the switch comes on AND the Onan keeps running. What the heck is that about????

Dunno. With pin 6 to 9, the fuel pump and ignition are supposed to shut off when you hit the stop switch. They come on when you hit the start switch. The intent was to save you from running back and forth to do the jumpering. With 6 to 9, you should be able to use the remote start and stop switches and leave the jumper in place. You just don't have the LOP protection and what not.

6-9 still runs the fuel pump and would have to be manually hooked up every time.

HOWEVER, Bdub had a suggestion to see if it ran if the prime button was held down. It does run as long as the prime button is held down. I could easily change the momentary prime button to a on/off switch and not have to go to the drawer.

HOWEVER, I noticed something odd, If I press the stop button while the Onan is still running, the red light in the switch comes on AND the Onan keeps running. What the heck is that about????

Ken, mine apparently NEVER catches up because it will run until you let go of the prime button. One thing that has me stumped is that the New Dino board I got from JimK didn't work either. JimK is bringing another board to Wisconsin just in case.

I suppose I can change that momentary button to a switch and just remember I have to do it differently and turn off when finished. Would that hurt anything?

At this point, I'm wondering if I did indeed get all the wires on the K1 Starter Solenoid back in the right place. I THOUGHT I labled everything... If anyone has the cover off their onan and can just count the wires on each terminal of the Starter Solenoid I can compare to mine and see if I did one wrong.