7.5Kw Quicksilver Genny Problem

MarkD

Member
Oct 5, 2006
355
Hudson River
Boat Info
1990 35' Sundancer
Engines
twin 454 inboards
Boat is 1990 Sea Ray with 7.5kw Quicksilver Generator.

This weekend I was on the hook and using the genny. Running about 1.5 hours when it suddenly stalled/shut down. At the time I had been running the forward air conditioning, water heater, charger, fridge etc. Basically a decent load on the unit. I immediately checked the sea water inlet, coolant level (it has an exchanger with antifreeze). All seemed ok. I pulled the front cover that exposes the carb and governor to see more.... I did find that the V-belt that attaches to the right side of the genny (when facing the front) linking the governor, sea water pump and (I think) stator, was shredded. The V-belt itself had 1/3 of the teeth missing but was still in tact and didnt break in half.

I used an emergency belt that I had to get things up and running again and restarted. The genny fired immediately up, but started to quickly over rev. I shut down again and looked around for more problems. A friend gave me a hand and we re-started and manually held back the governor at a point that it wouldnt over-rev the engine and I was again pumping water as usual. When he let go, the engine slowly started to rev up more and more. I checked the electrical panel and it showed something like 20 VOLTS. Not normal! We shut it back down and that was all for the day. My guess is that there must be some voltage regulator somewhere that interfaces with the governor telling it to rev up or slow down, depending on load. Since the voltage is low, maybe the governor is just doing its job and reving the engine up???

Any input as to what this could be and how to fix would be appreciated.
 
WOW. Freakish Mark. Mine did the same thing on Saturday. I had it running just to use it and had the big AC unit on. Probably for about 1/2 hour. I then shut the ac off and as I headed to the panel to shut the gen down, it started revving up and shut itself off. Started right back up again, revved too high and shut again. Started again and I ran over to the AC control and clicked it on (to get a load on) and it ran normal rpm. Shut AC off, revved and shut down again. Good water flow, nothing out of the ordinary visually. I didn't get a chance to look at the voltage and I didn't even look at it on Sunday. I have never had any problems with this unit in 5 years. What gives? A Quicksilver epidemic???
 
That IS weird Ron. Hoping someone with some experience can chime in.
 
Mark,

Sounds like you have a few things going on. The first thing to check is the oil level in the centrifugal governor. When the engine overspeeds, the control board cuts power to the relays that control 120 volts giving you the low voltage reading.

As you will find by searching the CSR forum....the governor, control board and fuel pump are constant sources of failure on the Quicksilver. It is only a matter of time for one of these components to fail.

Westerbeke and others have similiar safetys and control boards. The major difference is that most other manufacturers use electrical governors rather than mechanical. An electrical governor is more precise.

Let me know the story on the oil level in the governor. The operating manual explains how to change it.

-John
 
WOW. Freakish Mark. Mine did the same thing on Saturday. I had it running just to use it and had the big AC unit on. Probably for about 1/2 hour. I then shut the ac off and as I headed to the panel to shut the gen down, it started revving up and shut itself off. Started right back up again, revved too high and shut again. Started again and I ran over to the AC control and clicked it on (to get a load on) and it ran normal rpm. Shut AC off, revved and shut down again. Good water flow, nothing out of the ordinary visually. I didn't get a chance to look at the voltage and I didn't even look at it on Sunday. I have never had any problems with this unit in 5 years. What gives? A Quicksilver epidemic???

Bad JuJu we put on your genny after you kept telling me about how you never had problems with yours! I still haven't got my governor, they keep telling me it hasn't come from Generac yet.
 
John
I had put some oil in my governor earlier this season. Opened up the "observation" hole and didn't see any oil come out. So I put oil in - what seemed like a LOT of oil (maybe 2 shot glasses worth) and the level still didn't come up to the hole. So I stopped there, closed up the hole and forgot about it. The thing ran fine after that until Saturday. Nothing prompted me to put oil in - ie: I was having no trouble. I was just tinkering and noticed that there was nothing in the oil level observation hole. Did I eff something up?
 
John,
Thanks for the reply. The oil level was something that I had (until this weekend) never checked. I opened that small fitting and saw nothing there. However, that hole is really small. I ended up using a very tiny squeeze bottle and added some 10/30 oil i had laying around. i probably added about 1 oz before it seemed to overflow. Is that the right oil?

My question would be this, despite the fact that we manually held the governor back (and kept the RPM low) the voltage still was somewhere near 20-30 volts... Would the control panel still dictate low voltage even if the rpm was at/near normal speeds? I am looking to get a quick lesson on genny 101. :)

I dont have the original manual, but maybe someone like Ron does.
 
Mark,

Wilee posted a link for your manual a few months ago. Anything over a certain rpm (it is slighty above normal operating speed) will shut off power generation. The first problem to solve is the engine operating at a normal speed. It should not vary more than 100 rpm from its operating speed if the governor is functioning properly. If we still have power generation problems after that.....I will give you a few more things to check. The oil you used is fine. After you added the oil.....how did the unit run?

-John
 
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John
I had put some oil in my governor earlier this season. Opened up the "observation" hole and didn't see any oil come out. So I put oil in - what seemed like a LOT of oil (maybe 2 shot glasses worth) and the level still didn't come up to the hole. So I stopped there, closed up the hole and forgot about it. The thing ran fine after that until Saturday. Nothing prompted me to put oil in - ie: I was having no trouble. I was just tinkering and noticed that there was nothing in the oil level observation hole. Did I eff something up?

Ron,

Your issue is a bit different from Mark's but most likely the same part. When you removed a heavy load from the generator the engine speed up and the governor did not compensate prior to setting an overspeed condition on the control board. If you check the operators manual, there are a couple of adjustments that "might" help (spring positions). Certainly filling the governor with oil to the proper level will create more dampning inside the unit.

Let me know what happens after you fill it up. What oil did you use?

-John
 
John,
First off...thanks for responding! I really appreciate the help....

After i added the oil, nothing seemed to change. The engine initially rev'd up (higher than i ever remember hearing but not to WOT), then kicked back down after a few seconds to a lower level. It then continued to increase rpm until I got worried and shut it down from the stop switch on the engine itself. Running time might have been 10-15 seconds until I felt I had to shut it down.
 
John
I too used 10w30.

Mark
I gave you a copy of the owners manual way back when. I remember photocopying it for you. I also mailed one to the other Mark (Wilie). Here's the link to the parts catalog...

http://www.guardiangenerators.com/PublicPDFs/090245.pdf

I actually scanned the whole owners manual and put it up in this thread
http://http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19084
I'm not sure if the link is still on Megaupload, it was only supposed to be for a month. I'll check when I get home.
 
Wilee, the link seems broken. Do you have it in PDF form or similar?

Ron, I have that parts manual you speak of. It is only a parts breakdown, not service manual....
 
Most of those notes were made by the previous owner(s). And hell,don't ignore them. Some good stuff there!

I've found the parts manual at partsfortechs.com. Owner's manual is basically useless for these problems. Anything difficult it says "contact dealer." Unfortunately, they went the way of the dinosaur. I can't locate the service/shop manual - it used to be on Generac's site.

Quick Q: Do you guys change the oil using that rubber drain hose? I use the dipstick suck out method. Does the hose get it all out?
 
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Just kidding Ronald! Here's the service manual I've been using
http://www.generator-parts.com/manuals/generac-rv/082033.pdf

The owners manual is pretty useless, but I couldn't find it online, so I posted it. That way you wouldn't go broke mailing everyone copies.:lol:
If you want it, download and save it, because it only stays up for 30 days. (I think)
 
Mark
Nice job getting that owner's manual up! That's gotta be more of a pain than photocopying it!

That last link you put up is what I was looking for. More of a shop manual. I have that in hard copy somewhere - probably also on the boat.

Gotta sift through that and see what they say about the governor.

THANKS! Note to all QS owners. Do what Mark says - save all these pdfs. You'll need them someday!
 
BTW, section 4.4.1 (page 48 of the pdf) deals with the governor. So if the gen is racing with no load, is it merely a problem with the spring tensioner?????
 
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It is worth trying to adjust it. My experience in a few cases was that spring was tired and moving it to another position created a little more dampning effect on the governor which solved the speed issue. Just remember what hole you moved it from.

-John
 

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