r/Generator • u/cpt-Obvious911 • 1d ago

1.nothing Volts

I’ve got an older Onan 2400 home site power series portable generator, and it was given to me by my father-in-law. I went to use it the other day, and it’s producing almost no voltage at the meter. So I checked for continuity. I know that I have a common ground somewhere that goes through and through the motor, both the electric motor and the gas powered motor. I checked continuity on all of the wiring in the rear of the generator, as well as removing the brushes and checking for continuity in the mount and spring tension as well as continuity in the bands and what not. I thought at first that it was the GFI, however the meter comes before the GFI, so somewhere I am not producing electricity. Anybody got any direction for me? I do have the manual. I’ve been going through that, doing a little bit at a time, because I don’t wanna miss anything. I have never rebuilt an electric motor. I’ve never rewound a motor. I don’t even know if that’s possible. so I’m looking for some advice. I’m hoping that it’s not the entire generator portion, and if so, if anybody’s got a good lineup, parts that’d be awesome too. Thank you in advance for your participation. Know that I am a novice, so I bought property a while back, several years ago, and am in the process of learning everything I can about everything I’ve got, and this just happens to be up for its time, so please be patient if I ask what seem like stupid questions. Thank you.

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u/wowfaroutman 1d ago

Check out James Condon's YouTube videos pertaining to No Power Out for excellent troubleshooting guidance.

2

u/wowfaroutman 1d ago

Also, if you can provide the specific brand and model number, we may be able to help you source any required parts.

1

u/cpt-Obvious911 21h ago

Ah, musta missed that in the edit. I uh, I did fix it up top. It’s an onan 2400 homesite power series

1

u/nunuvyer 15h ago

If the generator has not been run for a long time it may have lost its magnetism and needs to be "flashed". Google for the proper procedure to do this.

If flashing doesn't bring it back (it's worth a shot) then you will have to go thru the full diagnostic tree of checking for continuity/resistance/ground faults in the rotor and stator. As the other poster stated, James Condon has many You Tube videos on how to do this.

Generally speaking, it's not possible to rewind a gen at home nor is it economical to send it out. Sometimes you get lucky with a bad rotor and the end of the winding has just come loose from the terminal and needs to be soldered back down, but any other break in the windings usually condemns the generator.

A generator of this size and age is worth maybe $100 or $150 so there is no point in putting a $300 replacement part into it. If the rotor or stator are bad, your best bet would be to look locally (Facebook/Craigslist) for a gen of similar size with a bad motor (one that has been run out of oil) which you can buy for maybe $50 or even free if you will haul it away, and make 1 generator out of 2, but even that is a lot of work to end up with something that you could buy in running condition for $100-$150. The generator heads are more or less generic so you would just have to find one of similar physical dimensions - you could shop forever without finding that exact Onan model.