Onan DKD - powerless

[rmp319]

Hey guys,

First time to post and would like to say you guys seem to have the answers.

I have a '90 SP36 with a DKD Onan 8kw genny. There is no power at the (4) switches (3) interior and (1) on genny. The unit will run if the fuel pump is powered and the stater is jumped with throttle held open. I can't seem to find any documentation on the electrical drawings showing where a fuse / breaker might be hidden. I also tried jumpering the red breaker in the control board box but no luck. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

[iamflagman]

Can you tell if the cooling fan is running when you can keep the genset running? I'm not familiar with what the term DKD stands for.

[rmp319]

I did not run the unit long enough to heat up and kick in the fan - just jumpered it to satisfy the "gut" it wasn't too serious. (hopefully) Anyway the DKD is just the model number for the Onan

Thanks for the help

[Bill Pape]

On the Onan there are five switches and /or breakers.
The top two black switches are start and glow plugs.
The next two are Red On/Off switches , but they act as circuit breakers.
The plastic red rocker button is missing from many Onans of this vintage, If this is the case use a plastic or wood thin dowel to reset the breaker. The bottom circular circuit breaker will pop out , just push it in to reset. Attached is a picture.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wander...unt=20&dir=asc

If it runs the fans should be blowing lots of air. If no fan there are more issues.

The two green boxes on top of the gennerator are the AC and DC control boxes. On the rear of the box is the plug-in wiring harness. This is a know trouble spot.
Reach around the back side & feel for it. It can not be seen from the front. Release the plug, clean, & spray with electronic contact cleaner and reinstall.

[rmp319]

Bill,

You were right about the switch covers missing and after following your instruction it kicked right off.

Thanks,

[Randy Dupree]

ahh,another easy fix!

[Bill Pape]

Originally Posted by rmp319

Bill,

You were right about the switch covers missing and after following your instruction it kicked right off.

Thanks,

Robert, Thanks for the follow up answer to let us know we are on the right track.
The Red button switch cover is probably in the bottom of the steel tray, that the generator sit in, just below the switches.
Look in the dirt and road debris.

[dlefty]

Hi Robert,

I am dealing with the same sort of problem with my Onan 8KW DKD. My gen was giving me the same symptoms as you have described on my return home from Fl the beginning of March. I was able to hook the fuel solenoid to the battery and the gen would run and create 120AC. I have done a lot since trying to troubleshoot the DC control box. I also have installed new breakers on the front of the control box. Like Bill said mine were missing and I was getting tired of trying to reset the breakers with no lever. I also replaced the oil pressure shutdown & the oil pressure power latch switch. There is one other switch that I need to replace that is the coolant temp switch. These three switches are hooked to the engine management board located in the DC control box. When one of these switches doesn't open properly your "fault" circuit breaker will trip. The fault cb is the push button on the bottom of the panel. I also sent out my eng. man. board to get it rebuilt. Mine had a pretty toasted resistor. I sent it to www.flightsystems.com to be rebuilt. To make a long story shorter I still was in the same boat as you. I found a wire that fed the gauges inside that went to the board (SW B+) to be the problem. Every time I unhooked it to the board the gen. ran fine. I would reconnect it to the SW B+ and the gen wouldn't start. Next I looked at the gauges. I unplugged the canon plug concerning the gauges with the board hooked up and it also ran fine. I looked at all the wires to make sure that they were intact. I also swapped the gauges with the main engine gauges to no avail. Next I measured the voltage at the canon plug it was 12.5V. Next I measured it at the gen B+ with it running. It was 14.5V. The SW B+ terminal was 13.1V. So when I switch the line that runs the gauges from the SW B+ terminal to the B+ terminal EVERYTHING WORKS! So I gave flightsystems a call and am having another engine board (300-2604) sent to me. I don't know whether it has anything to do with the board but it is my next best guess...

I have all three Onan manuals as well as the service manuals. They are somewhat helpful but the wiring diagram sucks! I spent a lot of time creating a larger wiring diagram in photoshop. If you need any help pm mail me.

Hopefully it will be something simple for you and you don't need to go through what I have. Good luck and keep us informed on you progress.

[Randy Dupree]

Cliff Vaughn had a problem like that on his onan.
we checked the canon plug and it had a burned pin,we jumped the pin out with a wire and all is well.
I think we have pics here somewhere.

[RGloverii]

I JUST dealt with a similar issue with my Onan 2 weeks ago.

Basically, no crank or preheat. From any controls. Bottom line, it was 2 burned pins on the (stupid) cannon plug.

I bypassed the bad pins, and now she's good as new!