Onan generator won't start... just a click sound

[Maynard503]

Hi all, I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.  
I have an Onan 3.0AJ generator that won't start.  When I push the start button all I hear is a click sound.  The guy that sold me the motor home indicated he thought it was the starter but he hadn't had a chance to look at it.  The vehicle starts fine and when I'm hooked to power the house battery charges. Is there any obvious things I should check?..and how .
I didn't want to take it to the Onan dealer yet and pay 70.00 for them to tell me that it was something easily resolved.

Thank you, Mike

[Jimbilly]

Have you checked the charge state of your house battery? (Not the one under the hood but in the side compartment.)  If the battery has a full charge then check your connections and cables to the battery.  If the starter is getting enough voltage then your starter drive is either broken or stuck.  It takes a fair amount of power to crank the generator fast enough to start it.  Hope this gives you a starting point.

Jimbilly
78 Bunkhouse
#3457

[handyman]

Mike check and see if yours has a place to use a pull cord if so make one and see if you can spin it that way also it might get it past where it could be hanging up

[Maynard503]

Thank you for your help...I was able to get a little further.  I hand cranked the generator and turned it over a few times...then I was able to start the generator with the start button.  If I let the generatorn sit too long then I have to once again hand crank it in order to get it started again.   Any ideas on this?

Thank you very much, Mike

[Shayne]

Sounds like the starter motor might be getting tired, or the battery connections need cleaning, or the house battery isn't putting out enough power.... I was having a charging problem.. finally traced to my alternator only putting out 12.5 volts on a good day... enough to keep it running and the lights on, but I guess not enough juice to get the house battery to turn over the generator.  Now that's fixed and the generator seems to start good.  Though my generator has less than 20 hours on it, so I pretty well knew it wasn't the starter motor.