Kohler 7.3ECD issues

cbruck

Member
Jul 5, 2016
40
Ocean Springs MS
Boat Info
2010 SR Sundancer 390 I/O's with 496 MAGs and Axius Drive
Engines
496 MAG's
Generator has always run fine and has 300 hrs and is about 10 yrs old. Just lately it would start and then stop. Thought I had just run it out of gas. All the maintenance had just been performed but I went through the gas lines all the way to testing the fuel pump. I took the pump off to test and later learned that there is a bleeder valve up by the fuel injectors that you can put the motor into a test mode (see manual) which won't let the engine start but you can open the bleeder valve and if gas comes out as you are turning over the engine, your fuel pump is working.

Next I went into looking into the various feedback modes that are supposed to shut down the engine after start up. The first thing I did was disconnect the remote start unit. Then it wouldn't crank, so I reconnected the remote. Then the engine wouldn't even start, just cranked and since the fuel was good, there was no spark. This was interesting as all I had done was reconnected the remote. I went back to the remote and as I pushed in the harness plug on the back of the remote I heard a click, which I didn't before. Bottom line with all of this was just that the harness plug was not fully secure into the remote unit. After this the generator has been running perfectly.

Just FYI, you can find the manuals online which are pretty good but there are multiple, (I think the Kohler rep said 4 models of the 7.3 version) and they are all different. I was first looking at a 7.3E and mine was a 7.3 ECD, completely different units.
 
This sounds odd to me. Were you trying to start via the start switch on the front panel? You can run the generator without the external interface. I was running it last spring on my driveway debugging issues - no external interface other than power. I have a 5ecd, but its the same electronics. Maybe partial connections were causing strange issues, but hard to understand.

I guess you'll know if that's all it was in time. Good luck!
 
I thought it was a little odd as well but when I disconnected the remote starter, the unit would not even turn over at the generator. I am sure there must be a mode that allows only the starter on the generator to run. I had read in another thread that either a shorted wire harness or a short in the remote unit would cause it to start and stop.
 

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