A king's ransom (was: ONAN - electronic ignition)

[mark grady]

Tom --

Not that I am aware of. It's possible that some other application of the
Onan engine would have this available at a lower cost. John Deere used a
similar engine in some lawn and garden tractors, Cushman used them too.

Those are about the only ideas I've got other than industrial stuff like
concrete tugs.

Mark

{snipped}

>You can retro-fit your Onan 6KW genset with an electronic
> ignition module,
>it is Onan part number 160-1376.

>Updated 3-March:
>
>Called Onan of Indiana (219-262-4611): Part number is still good, the
>"Magna-Arc" ignition module is available from stock.
>
>The price is $120.90, and they are proud of their parts, hence the price.
>Plus, you never have to set your points again. IIRC, you need to
>re-use your old points cover, not the new one that comes
>with the Magna-Arc.

 

[richard waters]

I used to be a sales manager for a garden tractor manufacturer and we used the
Onan engine in wide variety of machines. From garden tractors to a compact
loader and loader/backhoe. The Onan was the deluxe engine to have, while
Koher and Briggs & Stratton were the cheapie engines. I have a 20 HP Onan in
my garden tractor now and while it looks similar to the generator, there are a
number of differences. Also, we sold the engine with either cast iron
cylinders or aluminum cylinders with cast iron inserts. That supposedly
allowed the engine to be rebuildable. The cast iron engines looked the same,
but were much more expensive. I assume our generators have aluminum
cylinders. I wouldn't be suprised that there are differences in the newer
ignition systems, especially since the design of our ignition system is over
25 years old. The design of the engine and ignition system of my airplane
dates back to the 1930's, so what else is new?

And that's about all I know about Onan engines.

Richard Waters
- -76 Palm Beach.

> Tom --
>
> Not that I am aware of. It's possible that some other application of the
> Onan engine would have this available at a lower cost. John Deere used a
> similar engine in some lawn and garden tractors, Cushman used them too.
>
> Those are about the only ideas I've got other than industrial stuff like
> concrete tugs.
>
> Mark
>
> {snipped}
>
> >You can retro-fit your Onan 6KW genset with an electronic
> > ignition module,
> >it is Onan part number 160-1376.
>
> >Updated 3-March:
> >
> >Called Onan of Indiana (219-262-4611): Part number is still good, the
> >"Magna-Arc" ignition module is available from stock.
> >
> >The price is $120.90, and they are proud of their parts, hence the price.
> >Plus, you never have to set your points again. IIRC, you need to
> >re-use your old points cover, not the new one that comes
> >with the Magna-Arc.

 

[david l greenberg]

I don't know about using the old cover. I bought this unit from Camping
World about 5 years ago for $90.00 but find there isn't enough clearance
for this thing to fit. Perhaps we aren't talking about the same thing. I
haven't looked at it in quite a while but IIRC, it sits too high to allow
the drawer to close.

Dave Greenberg

>{snipped}
>
>>You can retro-fit your Onan 6KW genset with an electronic
>> ignition module,
>>it is Onan part number 160-1376.
>
>>Updated 3-March:
>>
>>Called Onan of Indiana (219-262-4611): Part number is still good,
>the
>>"Magna-Arc" ignition module is available from stock.
>>
>>The price is $120.90, and they are proud of their parts, hence the
>price.
>>Plus, you never have to set your points again. IIRC, you need to
>>re-use your old points cover, not the new one that comes
>>with the Magna-Arc.

 

[zachary zehnacker]

Dave,

I don't know if the 6K is the same as our 4K, but I'll tell you what we
did several years back on our 4K. We ordered the ignition module from Onan
(part number from GMCMI newsletter I think) through our local camper store.
The module would not fit without modification. I don't remember it being
too high to close the drawer in our case though. I think ours just
wouldn't fit at all in its original form. IIRC, we had to cut out the
corner of the metal enclosure it is in. This allowed it to fit with no
problem. We then just sealed up the enclosure with silicone to whatever
(intake pipe I think) caused us to have to cut the enclosure in the first
place. This worked fine for several years and was still working when we
replaced the Onan with the Honda. It seemed to make the Onan operate
(start/etc) better, but I can't say if there were any huge differences.
>From what the GMCMI newsletter said, we thought it was a "bolt-in"
replacement for the 6K. We figured that our 4K was just a little different
which is why it required the mods.

Zak

>I don't know about using the old cover. I bought this unit from Camping
>World about 5 years ago for $90.00 but find there isn't enough clearance
>for this thing to fit. Perhaps we aren't talking about the same thing. I
>haven't looked at it in quite a while but IIRC, it sits too high to allow
>the drawer to close.
>
>Dave Greenberg