Carver Owners Forum

I ran my genset with NO issues all weekend. HOWEVER, I went to start it this evening and NOTHING! The electric fuel pump went on, and the choke moved, but nothing at the starter. There are 2 red lights on the control board that went on when I pushed the switch to “START”. I have 12V down to the starter, and I pulled the exciter wire, (yellow one) from the terminal and put a meter on it, and when we hit the start switch, I got my 12 Volts down to that wire too. ALthough the starter is only 3 years old, I am thinking it may have gone bad? Not an easy one as the sound shield has to be removed. Input? It is the hONDA GX engine, so I assume the starter has to be marine and explosion proof? SO, the weekend was not ruined, I started the 454’s up to warm the water for a nice shower, batteries are still at 90% on the house, starting is full.

Thanks for your help and guidance.

Tony

I've always had good luck with this outfit. Always the cheapest OEM Kohler circuit boards to. They dont have everything but they do have all of the common failed parts for that genny. And, You can actually get a real person on the phone.

But, of course make sure you need it before you buy it.



https://www.partsfortechs.com/asapcart/ ... h=14_83_22

Is the oil full?

yes, oil and coolant is full. It just wont crank. When we get back tomorrow to the dock, I will remove the sound shield and see. To me, it is a starter. Since I have power to the stud on the solenoid, and when we push the crank switch the solenoid energizer wire gets power, It seems just not to energize the solenoid to have the starter crank. The starter is 4 years old and installed by the previous owner by what I call a HACK. I believe he had it rebuilt or just painted as it does not look new. LOL, he was also the man who said that the knock in the lower end was a bad lifter and attempted to put longer push rods in to “take up the slack”. The only thing that may have happened and I think not, but just a quirk, when we went to shut it down, the remote switch was pushed to the START position rather than a the stop. Stay tuned, new starter from DB Electrical on the way.

Pressing the start while running should not matter, there is a relay that locks out the start when the unit is running. The starter is in a bad place on that gen, it sits under the exhaust elbow outlets and the Y pipe. There is a lot of hose clamps and places to leak and it drips right on the starter. It could be a bad solenoid, not the starter, but it really doesn't matter since you have to pull the starter to replace the solenoid. That is a time consuming job as the starter bolts come from the front so the front cover has to come off. Hopefully the last guy greased all the bolts for you.

Sad to say the last guy was a hack. His answer to a knocking engine was longer push rods! I believe it will be a lengthy repair, especially since the sound shield has to be removed, raw water hose and from what looks like a lot of other small stuff. Yes, if I was going to replace the solenoid, I am replacing the entire unit. Kind of funny (?), but the last couple of times starting it the starter would not fully engage and made that grinding noise, I guess it was the solenoid giving up the ghost? SO, next Saturday I dive into this. Or as Jon Taffer says on Bar Rescue, "I'M GOING IN! "Glad to hear about that relay on the start system!

Today was the day. I got a starter from DB Electrical, nice fit and appears to be good quality, as I have used them in the past. Replacement was not that bad. Total time was 3 hours. Included removing the sound shield, the raw water pump, engine cowl and governor swing arm. (This one was a B I T C H to put back on!) Anyway, 2 bolts dropped the starter out, disconnected the wires. it WAS a hack job rebuild. I remember he charged the former owners widow $650.00 for a “quality rebuilt starter” and labor. Anyway, Then the other smaller wires that were connected to the main power line has seen better days, so I replaced the ends with heat shrink. Checked the wiring and everything pointed to the starter. I installed the starter, and then had that ONE 10mm bolt that would not go on, as the angle was incredible. That was 45 minutes in itself of th three hours total. Got it buttoned up and fired her off easily and with authority. However, NO power was being generated! I pushed the governor arm to goose up the engine and then we were producing power. I tightened up the governor spring Nd no surging. Ran her for 30 minutes, restarted 3 or 4 times, no issues as what I can see. Now to try another trip the end of this week at a mooring.Thank you for all the insights and wisdom, everyone here certainly gave me good direction.