Gen Shutdown new details

[Danss]

Electrical box on Gen has a fan and power circuit breaker. Also a small reset button. I reset it and it cranked right up and ran for 5 seconds and popped out again Did same thing several times so something is causing that reset to pop out. Any Ideas? Dan

[CAPT MOGUL & Sandy]

What type generator do you have, Dan? Ed

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Dan could be just the reset is getting weak.

If not you have a short maybe......... somewhere but I guess not.

How about the cooling blower for the radiator? Is it working? Full speed? Is that electrical box cooling fan also working?

[Danss]

Doesn't run long enough to check fans. Will talk to Power tech in the Am.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

If I had to guess I would think the reset button is for that smaller cooling fan and if it trips the gen shuts down no different than if the water temp or oil pressure went askew.

Check the paperwork on it to see? Should be something in there.

[Kevin Erion]

I have seen these circuit breakers get weak and fail. But, make sure you don't have something down stream that has failed and is causing the breaker to trip!

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I don't know if we can do any more than generalize because there are so many generator types and ways to install them.

The problem sounds electrical if a circuit breaker keeps tripping. The fact that it runs for 5 minutes tells me the run sense circuit and start circuits are functioning, but some fault is tripping the breaker. Initially I would have guessed it might have been overheating for example because it ran for 5 minutes so my thinking went to a failed circulating pump, broken belts on the pump, or a failed remote mounted circulating pump. Following that I would suspect a failed remote mount radiator fan. But instead of tripping a breaker, my guess is the coolant temperature sensor would just open a relay and shut it down, and when it cooled it could be restarted.

I'm leaning towards a lazy or failing circuit breaker. To check remove the wires and temporarily install an in-line fuse holder with the same rating. If the fuse blows it is not the breaker but someting in the circuitry.