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Yesterday I was sent up in the venerable satellite truck to the Sandusky sentencing. Prior to leaving DC I fired up the Onan deisel generator and let it run for 25 minutes to insure it wouldn't be a problem.
Four hours later, just after 3pm, I pulled into Bellefonte and squeezed my truck into it's assigned parking. I fired up the generator to let it warm up and wandered off to meet my crew and formulate a plan of action. Two minutes later as I walked back to the truck I heard it go *pleh* as the generator died.
I spent a short time trying to troubleshoot but when I spotted the alarm code blinking twice - "Low oil pressure", I knew I was toast. Out comes the smart phone and a quick search for Onan repair shops found one 8 minutes away.
I called and was connected to Roy. It was now about 15 minutes from closing for him, but he agreed to stay until I got there. I rolled my beast over as fast as I could, and he began to diagnose. Ultimately he spent most of his time removing the generator's protective housing to get at the oil pressure sensor in the back, and once it was disconnected, the generator ran like a charm. The sensor had obvious damage and was determined to be faulty.
Roy didn't have a replacement part but I checked with my management and they have agreed to risk running the generator without it for one day. The greatest chance of failure would be if the sensor itself physically failed and oil were to squirt out of the generator, but considering it's proximity to the manifold, any such activity will be apparent real quick as volumes of smoke will blanket downtown.
So an hour later I was buttoned up and on my way to the hotel for the night. Roy stayed over an hour past his shift (and had to be in early today - at the time of this writing - 6am - he should be on the road for a job in another town.)
Thank you Roy for staying late and helping an out of towner in an emergency. That was darn nice of you!
Four hours later, just after 3pm, I pulled into Bellefonte and squeezed my truck into it's assigned parking. I fired up the generator to let it warm up and wandered off to meet my crew and formulate a plan of action. Two minutes later as I walked back to the truck I heard it go *pleh* as the generator died.
I spent a short time trying to troubleshoot but when I spotted the alarm code blinking twice - "Low oil pressure", I knew I was toast. Out comes the smart phone and a quick search for Onan repair shops found one 8 minutes away.
I called and was connected to Roy. It was now about 15 minutes from closing for him, but he agreed to stay until I got there. I rolled my beast over as fast as I could, and he began to diagnose. Ultimately he spent most of his time removing the generator's protective housing to get at the oil pressure sensor in the back, and once it was disconnected, the generator ran like a charm. The sensor had obvious damage and was determined to be faulty.
Roy didn't have a replacement part but I checked with my management and they have agreed to risk running the generator without it for one day. The greatest chance of failure would be if the sensor itself physically failed and oil were to squirt out of the generator, but considering it's proximity to the manifold, any such activity will be apparent real quick as volumes of smoke will blanket downtown.
So an hour later I was buttoned up and on my way to the hotel for the night. Roy stayed over an hour past his shift (and had to be in early today - at the time of this writing - 6am - he should be on the road for a job in another town.)
Thank you Roy for staying late and helping an out of towner in an emergency. That was darn nice of you!