Westerbeke Help

[karavi]

Hello all:

New to forum and new to a boat with a generator.
I purchased a 2014 Robalo 305 with a 3.5 KW gas gen with 22 hours on the meter.

The generator worked fine at the sea trial and a few times once home.
Yesterday I changed out the pencil zinc and made sure the heat exchanger was clear.

Went to start it to check for leaks and all it did was crank. No start....
I think it is just something silly I missed or did wrong.

Any help is appreciated. Need to do all i can before going to the mechanic route. The nearest is a long boat ride away.

[wingless]

Welcome to the forum.

There should be two switches for the generator.

Press and hold both the preheat switch and the start switch until the engine catches.

Then release the start switch while holding the preheat switch until the engine stabilizes.

[wingless]

These might be labeled: Preheat = On / Start (two-position) and Start = Start / Off-Run / Stop (three-position).

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, karavi.

Westerbeke Document Library ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/documentlibrary.htm

Westerbeke Troubleshooting Guide - BC Generators ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/troublesh...ing_manual.pdf

Westerbeke 3.5 Kw Gas Generator Operator’s Manual
2018 ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/operator%...%20rev%201.pdf
2012 ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/OnlineMan...%20Rev%201.pdf

[motion30]

Does a gasoline-powered westerbeke generator have a preheat switch?

[wingless]

Yes, on the gasoline Westerbeke generator the preheat switch activates an electric solenoid manual choke.

[River Cruiser]

While working on it did the toggle off/on switch on the generator get bumped to the off position?

[karavi]

Hmmmmm.. no preheat switch that i see.

[karavi]

Looking at the owners manual there is a diagram of what I have.
I'll be back at the boat tomorrow.

start/stop rocker one on generator and same in cabin with a reset switch also in cabin (tried that too)..

8A fuse (checked-good) 20A circuit breaker. It must have been on or i doubt it would crank.

Maim Circuit breaker (on) But I would guess it would not crank at all if these are not set proper.

Still I will check all these again.
I read a check engine can come on if battery is low.
Can that make it crank but not start?
Does not make sense.

[karavi]

Here is a blowup of the switch panel on the gen

[karavi]

Opps that is not it, but maybe can zoom.
Try this

[karavi]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, karavi.

Westerbeke Document Library ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/documentlibrary.htm

Westerbeke Troubleshooting Guide - BC Generators ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/troublesh...ing_manual.pdf

Westerbeke 3.5 Kw Gas Generator Operator’s Manual
2018 ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/operator%...%20rev%201.pdf
2012 ➥ https://www.westerbeke.com/OnlineMan...%20Rev%201.pdf

Page 20 is the exact control on the gen.

[wingless]

According to the engine start section, press then release the start button, it will crank for eight seconds, three attempts possible. Mine has a preheat, yours doesn't have that manual control...

According to the troubleshooting section, no start is caused by 1) fuel starvation 2) air in fuel 3) fouled spark plugs 4) faulty ignition coil

The engine has software diagnostics for possible faults. That might be the only way if nothing is obvious.

[karavi]

I have not seen a primer bulb, but I'll look harder.

I can loosen the fuel line (carefully of course) and see if fuel is there.
Maybe transfer some into a can if there is air in there. ( I know this is tricky)..

Don't know where the coil might be, but I have the operators and installation manuals for it.

I wonder if I got the coil wet. I had to do a thorough cleaning of the bilge.
Used simple green, bottle and regular brushes and hosed everything to get it all clean. The picture I posted was before the cleaning.

The gen definitely got wet.

[karavi]

Pulled a plug wire off and put an extension on the connector. Touched near to ground. No spark.

So this could be something telling the electronics not to give power to the coil or the coil is bad.

I don't know if I can test the coil. It feeds both plugs. Maybe replace blindly and hope...

Thoughts?