Whisper Power 9.5 stops running - troubleshooting generator

[Outventure]

I have a Whisper Power Ultra 9.5 that came with my Lagoon 440 that I purchased last year.

As I installed a lot of solar and lithium batteries and don't run a/c's, it wasn't the highest priority to get the genny back to work. However, it is on the boat and now that i have it i would love to get it to work. I was in Europe recently and boughtt a new control box and stop solenoid from the dutch HQ of Whisper Gen that we just installed. However, the generator starts and after around 15-20 seconds stops running.

Maybe someone here has an idea what else we may try. I have a very able mechanic with me at the moment. We ran all the tests according to the manual (oil pressure, exhaust temp, coolant temp, fuel supply, …). We bypassed the control box but the panel sais it is not running also the (new) stop solenoid is getting extremely hot after a little while (1-2 minutes). The ac voltage stays at the same level (121 v). The dc alternator is charging at a constant 13.2v.

Is there anything we may have missed? I have invested already an incredibly amount of working hours of my mechanics and spare parts and maintenance and I really do not have any other idea what to do.

Maybe anyone here has had a similar issue and can tell us what test to run next.

Thanks so much for any hints to what we may do.

[skipperpete]

Hi Outventure. The stop solenoid heating up is possibly the key to the problem. I haven’t had any experience with your specific generator but the stop solenoid looks like the Woodward solenoid on Kohler/Yanmar generators and are wired to a start circuit and a run circuit. The start (pull in) function is powered from the pull in terminal on the starter motor solenoid so it should only be a momentary connection then it drops out and the shutdown solenoid is held in by the “run” or “hold “ circuit. The pull in circuit draws a lot of power and will quickly destroy the stop sol. if continuously active but the run circuit is low power draw and will happily hold in the plunger all day without heating up. If the power is interrupted by the safety circuit the solenoid returns to the stop position.
I hope this helps to explain at least one reason why you expensive solenoid is getting hot.
Pete.