Onan sagging so hard the fly-wheel rubs

Kelpiesgmc

Kelpiesgmc

Active member
Aug 19, 2023
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Tucson Az
Just when I thought I had the Onan road-trip ready... I tried sliding it back in it's drawer, and starting it up... it sounded horrible, so I slid it back out to see what the trouble was. Started it up while slid out and it sounded fine. Slid it back in while it was running and SPARKS flew out the flywheel housing!! ✨

I had noticed that it was VERY hard to slide in completely, but I hadn't really noticed why. But now I see... hits the bottom of the starter and the flywheel housing. When fully slid it, it actually rests on the flywheel housing, forcing that whole part up and into the flywheel! 😬

I don't see any way to adjust it... what do I do!
 
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RF_Burns said:
When I installed new pads and noticed two of the old pads were installed wrong. It runs much better now with new pads in the correct places.
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How did you know they were wrong? I didn't see any mention of the mounts in the Onan manual. I'm afraid to be the next dummy who installed them wrong 😅
 
It is very common for those Onan mounts to sag and the starter hit the frame. It is also common for the starter bracket to get broken after the mounts sagged.. Ragusa makes a new steel bracket to replace the OEM cast aluminum one. The mounts are easy to do with an engine hoist. I guess you could also do them with a floor jack. It took me under an hour to replace them. Do them one mount at a time.
 
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If you have to do anything with any of the Power Drawer Onans, get the 3/8-16 screw eye to fit in the tapped hole in the manifold and a engine hoist. This is way the easiest way to wrestle the barberian out of its place.
Matt_C
 
Matt Colie said:
If you have to do anything with any of the Power Drawer Onans, get the 3/8-16 screw eye to fit in the tapped hole in the manifold and a engine hoist. This is way the easiest way to wrestle the barberian out of its place.
Matt_C
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Sadly I'm very storage-poor. I have absolutely no where to keep an engine lift. So I'll have to do the replacement with the coach's bottle jack. Unless I can find somewhere to rent a engine hoist 🤔
 
Good job, you will see the difference
I used a bottle jack to lift each corner when replacing the rubber
 
Gravity is what keeps the air force's perfect record. Unlike the navy and other services "They never left one up there.
 
I was flying in an airplane (not on it) and one engine started acting up. The pilot came on over the intercom and said he was going to shut that engine down, but not to worry, the plane could easily get us there on three engines but we would be a hour late. After awhile another engine started smoking and the pilot said, not to worry, the plane was designed to fly with only two engines but that we would be two hours late. wouldn't you know it the #3 engine started acting up and the pilot was afraid of runaway engine so he told us he decided to shut it down as well but that we would be three hours late to our destination.

The guy next to me turns to me and said, Jeez, if that last engine goes out were going to be up here all day!
 
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That kind of sounds like a small commuter air line we had around here 50 years ago. He flew some small twins out of here and a couple other local air ports. They never flew over 3000 feet and usually ran at 2500 from here direct to O'hare. I was out there one day when he loaded the plane up so far aft CG that the tail hit the ground when he went to get in. He got out, went to the front of the nose and put his weight on it to pull the nose wheel back on the ground. Then he climbed back in but from the front of the wing this time, started it up, and taxied away. Surprisingly he never killed anyone in all of the years he ran that service.
 
We use to call them Kamikaze Joe Airline. The owner (first name Joe) was also the owner of one of the airports he flew out of.

I would never get near one of their airplanes and I never knew any pilot that would use them to get to O'hare. The city where he was based finally bought his airport and in the process the airline was shut down.
 
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