Onan Generator

mcanderson said:
If it helps at all, I think your teak looks brilliant. What do you use to keep it in that shape?
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A LOT of hard work.

Using Wessex cleaner.
We installed Flexiteak on the bathing platform last November.
The Flexiteak is much easier to keep clean and looks as good as the teak in the photo.
This season will tell though.

I like my teak to look as good as it was when it was new.
Unfortunately, the photos don't show how rough it is.
New teak is really smooth - this is 10 years old and cleaned a lot so not much life left in it.
Flexiteak seems to stay smooth throughout its life and can be scrubbed/pressure washed.
The debate is that Flexiteak gets hotter than natural teak - again. this season will tell.
 
Hi Hurricane. I have two Onans on Play d'eau and their service manuals state the water pumps need to be primed. Disconnect the sea-water inlet pipe from the impellor housing. Pour water into the housing (how to do this depends on the Onan model) which in turn will fill the heat exchanger etc. Reconnect and try again. It's worked for me for 15 years! Crazy question - you've opened the sea-cock?

Piers
 
jrudge said:
In andraxt so do shout if you are here. I need my exchanger stripping as well !!
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The plan (at the moment) is to head for the north coast (maybe anchor in Calobra on Wednesday night - I really like Calobra)
Then pootle round to Santa Ponsa for Thursday night.
But with the weather as it is now, anything can happen.
 
Hurricane said:
For the record, our genset is an MDKBR - Spec B - 17.5KVA.

After removing the casing, the hardest part of changing the heat exchanger was removing the old coolant.
There are drain points on the underside of the heat exchanger but they are impossible to get to.
We first drained the coolant from the main engine drain point and then cracked the large hose on the side of the heat exchanger.
Careful placement of rags stopped the coolant from flowing under the engine.
I have been dreading this job - I thought that the hoses would be stuck fast but, in fact, the hoses came apart easily.
The rest of the job was fairly straight forward.
Having just replaced the coolant on the main engines, I had plenty of new coolant left over for this job.

These are the pics of the old heat exchanger - you can see that it was completely blocked.

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Wow, that’s the worst buildup I have seen for a few years. Might be worth checking the injection elbow.
 
Piers said:
Hi Hurricane. I have two Onans on Play d'eau and their service manuals state the water pumps need to be primed. Disconnect the sea-water inlet pipe from the impellor housing. Pour water into the housing (how to do this depends on the Onan model) which in turn will fill the heat exchanger etc. Reconnect and try again. It's worked for me for 15 years! Crazy question - you've opened the sea-cock?

Piers
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The manual might say it but it makes no engineering sense Piers. I've never done it in 6 Onan ownerships and am not going to start now. (Obviously you lubricate a newly fitted impeller with grease or washing up liquid)
 
jfm said:
The manual might say it but it makes no engineering sense Piers. I've never done it in 6 Onan ownerships and am not going to start now. (Obviously you lubricate a newly fitted impeller with grease or washing up liquid)
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I didn't want to say but mine has always primed itself.
Maybe it is the actual installation - my raw water strainer is only about 1 foot above the waterline.
That said, over the last few days, I have been priming it by turning off the sea cock and filling the strainer manually.
 
jfm said:
The manual might say it but it makes no engineering sense Piers. I've never done it in 6 Onan ownerships and am not going to start now. (Obviously you lubricate a newly fitted impeller with grease or washing up liquid)
Click to expand...

You should not actually use any oil based lubricant on a impeller. We only recommend water for lubricantion.
 
Hurricane said:
The plan (at the moment) is to head for the north coast (maybe anchor in Calobra on Wednesday night - I really like Calobra)
Then pootle round to Santa Ponsa for Thursday night.
But with the weather as it is now, anything can happen.
Click to expand...

I would say the weather is not good enough to warrant the trip. Very mixed cloudy windy etc
 
Hurricane said:
I didn't want to say but mine has always primed itself.
Maybe it is the actual installation - my raw water strainer is only about 1 foot above the waterline.
That said, over the last few days, I have been priming it by turning off the sea cock and filling the strainer manually.
Click to expand...

My raw pump has a little screw on the side. It's verty easy to bleed it that way and with no mess. Not all pumps have this.
 
ARE said:
You should not actually use any oil based lubricant on a impeller. We only recommend water for lubricantion.
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Not all rubber impellers, I think neoprene is OK with oil. It can be looked up - material compatibility. I use silicone, it's as slippy as a slippy thing and compatible with every rubber.
 
Zing said:
Does anyone have a good source for Onan parts? It seems I need a new stop solenoid also. It was failing and shuddering in and out before the AVR failed.
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I ended up buying in the US. The AVR board was about a quarter less from Power Solutions in Florida. Onan UK wouldn't supply and referred me to Seapower. I also got an aftermarket stop solenoid from P J Power for a quarter of the Onan cost. It is not a mission critical part and it seems OK.
 
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