A couple of days ago the generator on "Ugly Betty" decided to retire and no longer wanted to start. Hit the start button in the coach and NOTHING happened. Well I figured something was amiss with the wiring from the inside of the coach to the Generator. I have previously had a problem with a broken ground wire between the dash switch and the generator controls mounted on the generator. You could not shut down the generator from inside the coach.

The generator is a Power Tech powered by a 3 cylinder Kobota Diesel engine. Rusty is here visiting and we decided to go out today and see if we could find what was wrong. From previous experience, I was pretty sure we would find a problem between the inside controls and the generator. I was sure it would start using the local controls at the generator. WRONG. Hit the starter switch and nothing happened. Okay now its time for some trouble shooting. Are we getting voltage to the starter switch? Yep. Are we getting voltage at the main lug on the starter? Yep. Hold the Test lead on the solenoid terminal and hit the starter switch, got voltage? Yep. Starter or solenoid must be bad.

Remove the starter (easier said than done). Disassemble starter and check armature, windings, brushes, bearing, and etc. Everything looks good.
Reassemble starter. Hook up jumper wires to solenoid and a ground wire under one of the solenoid cover screws. Get a good battery and test starter. STARTER SEEMS FINE. Bendix jumps out and works great.

Reinstall starter (easier said than done). Reconnect all the wires. Reinstall sending unit and wires that had to be removed to get to the top starter mounting bolt. Hit the starter switch. NOTHING. Back out with the test equipment. Are we getting voltage to the starter switch? Yep. Are we getting voltage at the main lug on the starter? Yep. Hold the Test lead on the solenoid terminal and hit the starter switch, got voltage? Yep.

Okay now it's time to go get a drink and think about it awhile. Might take more than one drink!!

Let's try one more thing. Take out the solenoid cover screw and put that ground wire we were using on the test back under the head of the screw. Now hook the other end under that grounding buss. Ok, Hit the starter. Like magic, it started right up.

Oh well that only took 4 hours.

And for all you mechanics out there, yes I know the starter should ground through the mounting bolts and there should be a grounding strap from the engine to the frame. But after we got it started we searched for a broken ground and could find no sign of a engine ground. How has it worked for the last 16 years? I don't have a clue.

Nick

when I got the barth back and the air came on new the batteries were down tried to start the gen would not start just did nothing..After charging up batteries it did start.
lenny