It’s the starter, stupid!
The cold front that we were promised hit last night. Dropped the temps to a balmy 85-90F in the afternoon. At least it felt that way to me.Got more news on the generator. Starter apparently self-destructed. Discovered this while I was attempting to by-pass the starter relay. Got the relay out of the control box then traced the wire back to the starter. @#$%@#$ the cable terminal moves! That can’t possibly be a good thing! At first I thought it was just a loose cable. Then I realized that the whole assembly was moving. Well that tore it for me. Gotta take the starter out. Only it doesn’t look easy. It wasn’t but it was do-able so I don’t have to drop the generator. Here’s what I found:
What you don’t see in the pictures is that the back end of the rotor is no longer supported. All the plastic is gone! No wonder the thing didn’t want to turn.
Still researching who to order a new starter from. Onan and local RV place want $250-300. Can get them online for anywhere from $40-150. Big difference in price. I am definitely going to order one with a metal back. Will probably cost about $100 with 2nd-day shipping.