Continuing with Onan 4000 removal from Class C.

[Artum_Snowbird]

Thanks for the help yesterday. Now attempting to remove the generator.

All the mounting bolts are loose, positive and negative and control wires are removed. Can anybody tell me where I can remove the A/C output wires?

They enter into the generator with the metal cover over the leads, but I cannot see how to remove them from the generator so I can drop it out.

[Kpackpackkelley]

Good work.

[j-d]

Good News! Sorry you had to dig so deep.

[DrewE]

Artum Snowbird wrote:
Dropped it out with a motorcycle jack. Found the problem as soon as I took the lid off. Loose connection on the starter, so loose in fact it could wobble and wiggle easily.

That'll do it.

Since you have it apart, do a quick check that all four brushes on the starter motor are in okay shape, are connected, and are properly seating against the armature. It's possible for any one of the four to not make contact and the starter will still operate, after a fashion, but at reduced power and (due to the greater likelihood of stalling out) at a rather higher chance of burning out.

[Artum_Snowbird]

Dropped it out with a motorcycle jack. Found the problem as soon as I took the lid off. Loose connection on the starter, so loose in fact it could wobble and wiggle easily.

[Artum_Snowbird]

Wires pulled out with help on the other end pushing. Yeah.

[Artum_Snowbird]

Well I will be amazed. I followed the flexible conduit and it veered off over my gray tank and another lead came out from there. I went inside the rig and there is a standing cupboard there, with the bottom shelf covered with a plywood section. Inside I found the electrical junction box for the electrical A/C output leads.

Now I will see if I can pull the wires through about five or six feet of flexible conduit and leave behind a couple of pull wires to pull the wires back once I repair the unit.

There is an Onan God after all, he was just hiding.

[DrewE]

The wires would indeed be 10 AWG.

Wire nuts, properly applied and preferably taped so they won't vibrate loose, are a perfectly acceptable way of securing the connections. I would tend to trust those over garden variety crimp-on connectors. Putting that in a weathertight box would be A-OK and I think required by code if exposed to the elements or road spray outside. If inside, a plain ordinary electrical box would suffice.

(I also suspect you don't actually mean cast iron junction box; I've never seen such a beast!)

[Artum_Snowbird]

The wires look like No. 10. I think I will investigate cutting the flexible conduit and bringing the wires into a cast iron junction box. I think I can cut corners to get the wires inside the box and connected. Three extra length barrel connectors squeezed down and well taped will solve the problem, but I will probably put a length inside the box and use six connectors so if I ever need to remove it again I can.

[DrewE]

On mine, the AC ground and neutral connected to a little bottle-cap like doohicky on the inside exactly opposite the DC ground wire connection. The AC hot connected to the circuit breaker on the generator. To get at them required removing a bunch of the secondary parts inside (the control/regulator boards, starter solenoid, mounting plate for the circuit breaker/fuse/start switch, etc.). It was pretty straightforward, everything using the same size Torx screw and having connectors to unplug where needed, but it did take awhile to undo everything.

I don't think disconnecting it from the junction box was practical on my installation; I think the wires run straight to the transfer switch, though I may be mistaken I haven't come upon an intermediate junction box, at any rate. Your installation may well be different, of course.

[Artum_Snowbird]

All true indeed. My generator is about 20 feet from the control box.

[Kpackpackkelley]

Should be a junction box down the line from the generator.

[Vw_triker]

x2, that's how I did it, unlike me, note where the wires go on the other end!!

[MrWizard]

what about removing from the other end, and dropping the cable with the generator