Onan 5500 Fault Code 14

[edatlanta]

My Onan was installed originally when I bought my signature 5'er 22 months ago. I full time and have been in it continuously since purchase. My Onan has been run religiously, and I have the records to prove it, monthly for at least 1 hour under load. Marine Formula STA-BIL® is always in the gas and I also buy non-ethanol gas whenever I can find it. The generator was last used for real 3 weeks ago when it ran for 8 hours continuously due to a power outage at the park where I am hosting. It ran perfectly all day with two a/c's running.

Yesterday morning it would start and immediately die. Fault Code 14 - Over Frequency fault. I have been thinking about what has changed since the all day run 3 weeks ago. The only thing I remembered was I checked the oil. That turned out to be the problem. On this particular Onan model there is a bundle of wires and a small rubber hose that runs right in front of the dip stick. I moved these up on top of the dip stick housing to better access the dip stick. I did not put this bundle back. The problem was that the rubber hose was now directly underneath the throttle arm and when the engine started the governor tried to reduce the rpm and it couldn't because the arm hit this rubber tube and caused the over frequency situation. I relocated the bundle and the tube back to their original position and the unit runs fine.

Be advised of this if you get a fault code 14. The usual diagnosis of this by Onan is a gummed up carburetor/fuel system due to lack of use. I knew this wasn't the case with mine.

Simple mistake that would have cost me cash if I had taken it in to Onan since operator error is not a covered warrant item.