just returned from a great shakedown trip in our 79 Barth 21' to the Sonoma Coast...all went well except lost a near new Wheelmaster wheel cover at the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge...but, the dash gen switch kills the gen but won't initiate the starter...any trouble shooting ideas???I'm pretty dump about this electrical stuff...thanks for the help...joe...

I can't speak to your coach directly, but on my SOB, the remote wiring plug into the genset was basically a mess. I tried cleaning it a few times, and it was still erratic. Someone had used the original plug and wires and spliced it into the wire harness from the inside switch.

So I cut out the splices and soldered new male pins and inserted into the Molex connector, and all has been well since.

This isn't rocket science, but it requires a bit of patience (and my SOB's genset is an Onan) as well as Molex de-insertion tools, which allows removing each pin from the connector. Since I build and repair PCs, I had a variety of pins and tools in my kit, but they're available at Radio Shack in any event.

The first rule of electro-witchcraft is that wires rarely go bad - connectors do - so the Priority-of-Suspicion is:

1. Connectors
2. Switches
3. Wire

Anyway, locate the remote connector on the genset. Exercise the connector (Geekspeak for "remove and insert it several times"). If that doesn't work (assuming Molex connectors), a very small screwdriver can be used to expand the male pins (you'll see they're slotted). Reinsert the connector and try again.

If the connector is a plain-blade type, get some Radio Shack Tuner Cleaner, disconnect, spray both ends with the cleaner, and exercise several times.

Molex connectors can be identified by their round pins and receptacles, and are normally in a white nylon holder. Molex connectors are popular in many, many applications because the components can be repaired or overhauled without replacng the whole thing, and there's a wide variety of nylon holders, which allows configuring idiot-proof connectors.

If this doesn't cure the problem, then the switch is suspect, but most are "self-cleaning", so the suspiciion goes once again to the connectors...

I can give you the info for my Kohler generator 7CKM

Will it start at the rocker switch that is attached to the gen set? No - (In this order) bad fuse or bad solenoid or bad starter or break in the wire. Based upon your description I'm going to guess that it does start up at the generator.

The white wire is in pin hole #1 Stop
The red wire is in pin hole #2 Hourmeter - Pos
The black wire is in pin hole #3 Start
The green wire is in pin hole #4 Ground

What happens with mine is that to start up, the rocker switch is tripped and pins 4 goes to pin 3 and starts it up. To shut it off pin 4 touches pin 1. This starts up by completing a ground circuit. For it to shut off I would say that pin 4 and pin 1 are good circuits. Pin 3 might have a break in it or it's a bad switch. to check this out without damaging anything start it up at the generator. Hook up your test light to a good ground - touch the red wire, it should light the test light - now touch the white wire, it should stop it - Now touch the black wire - it should start. If this works I would suspect the switch.

I'm telling you to use a test light because that has enough resistance in it to start or stop it if it's a grounding circuit without shorting anything out. If it doesn't work by looping a ground then the worst that happens is your test light comes on. Nothing gets shorted out. Use a regular test light - a diode light is useless.

The only time pin 2 works is when it starts up, the power runs back up this line and starts your hour meter and lights up your switch.