I’m going to have pitty this morning and put the title subject information first. For you guys only thinking information is what you seek there ya go but I invite you to hang around after your fix for some of the frivolity…
If you have not yet discovered the Facebook GMC thing you should give it a try. Search on Facebook for “GMC Classic Motorhomes” where you will find some enthusiastic people interested in the GMC motorhome. New owners, new enthusiasts are being added to our ranks so welcome them please.
So anyway, there was a recent thread about getting an original Onan “troll” started. This is a pretty traumatic situation in that if you can’t get it going and reliable … not just running hit and miss but really reliable…. you have the best part of a $5000 repair in front of you and brother I feel your pain. You need a power plant creating AC voltage to have the creature comforts we have grown to expect in our lives.
The definition of a generator being an “emergency standby device”. I mean when your wife calls from the back saying “she’s hot”, I know what you may want that to mean but my bet is you need to pull over and get the roof AC going. Of course to do that Me. Generator needs to do his thing and if he doesn;t… well, the meaning of her comment could be meaningless…
What I drew for Facebook yesterday was this 
What you see is the back side of your generator remote switch. The switch and fuse at the bottom of the drawing is what you will add… and that’s it. If your board works fine, install a momentary button switch where the toggle switch is and hold the switch on for 15 seconds before you try and fire the generator. The run light will come on while you do this which is telling you it’s working. Fire the generator, hold the button in for another 5 seconds to allow the generator to pass off power to the alternator winding and there ya go… you fed a strong 12 volts to the coil under the start mode.
If your PC board is not allowing the generator to run, flip on the toggle switch which will supply poert to the coil. Push the start button and start the generator. It should stay running, to turn the generator off simply switch off the toggle switch. The only circuit this will shut off is your “low oil” shut down circuit. I feel if your generator is not leaking oil or blowing smoke you should be able to check the oil then run it all day and cheack the oil again at sundown for the nights use.
Hey look, these are really old generators in generator life. 20 years is really old for a reliable generator and here we are preying for a 35+ year old troll to fire like a spring chicken… I mean really! Give the beast all the help you can, install this simple circuit and when it will no longer start with this…. empty the oil and she makes a pretty fair boat anchor..
Have a great day….
