Kohler 5E wont stay running

M

Mark B

Member
Jul 22, 2008
34
Irmo, South Carolina
Boat Info
280 Sundancer
Engines
Twin 5.0's with Bravo III's
Generator starts and runs for 3 seconds and shuts off. I last had it running about 2 weeks ago and it did same thing but finally started and ran fine under load for an hour.Tried the other day 15-20 times, but would shut off each time. What gives?
 
Can you give us some background on maintenance performed and hours on the unit? Things you have already checked?
 
The first question I would ask is what is the water flow like out of the exhaust? If low, the impeller would be first on the list to check.
 
It seems that your system is detecting a fault and shutting down. There are three faults, I believe. From memory, one is raw water pressure? One is oil pressure? One is temp (probably from fresh water cooling system)?

Search this site for the same topic. There are ways to bypass the sensors. On some systems, holding the preheat switch bypasses the fault shutdown. If you can press and hold that (without shutting the genny off), and it stays running, then your system is detecting a fault.

Standard things to check:
1) Water flow when you start it - should be almost immediate and pretty steady
2) Before start - Oil level
3) Before start - Coolant level
4) Before start - Any loose wires
 
Any fault codes showing on gen.?
 
Make sure that you CO detector wires are connected. I had the same issue and found that a wire had come loose on the CO detector. Good luck
 
There may be a switch on the genny that requires it to have a load in order to run (demand start). Try starting with a small load like a 110volt light and see if that helps.
 
There may be a switch on the side of the genny that requires it to have a load in order to run (demand start). Try starting it with a small load (light - not A/C) and see if that works.
 
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