Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: TAS69 on September 11, 2016, 10:55:38 am

Title: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: TAS69 on September 11, 2016, 10:55:38 am
My friends 89 Grandvilla is without gen! We first noticed difficulty bringing coach home from Tulsa when he purchased it this summer. The problem was intermittent at first when we tried to start. Now nothing at start up. Except a click and sizzling/ popping noise. We noticed smoke coming from back side of unit so this morning while it was cool we slid unit out ( minus muffler) the coil and a small capacitor are in area where smoke was rising from. We're having coil tested this week . Just wondered if anyone had any experience with something similar back in the day?
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: NancyS on September 11, 2016, 11:16:13 am
Remove and replace with a 4.0 Micro Quiet, the 6.5's were junk
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: Caflashbob on September 11, 2016, 11:37:38 am
Had the generating part fail once at 50 hours.  Wires sticking out stuff.  Dealer in pheonix fixed it by replacing the generating parts on Christmas Eve for free
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: Mike Leary (RIP) on September 11, 2016, 02:02:54 pm
Those early Onans had points and condensers (anyone remember them?)  I don't know if they are available anymore, but worth a try.
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: wolfe10 on September 11, 2016, 04:25:15 pm
Remove and replace with a 4.0 Micro Quiet, the 6.5's were junk

Think you will find a lot of people who will disagree with that statement.  The 6.5 is a very heavily built 1800 RPM generator with pressure lubrication and oil filter.

The 4000 runs at 3,600 RPM and no oil filter. 
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: craneman on September 11, 2016, 06:27:46 pm
I had issues with that circuit board on the 6.5 in my Vogue. They can repair it. Check on-line, I did it DIY but it was too long ago to remember anything more than I soldered new parts where burned ones were.
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: fkjohns6083 on September 11, 2016, 08:18:24 pm
We have the 6.5 KW Onan in our 91 GV and it has performed well over the years for us.  The only problem that we have had is the difficulty starting in cold weather.  That problem can be remedied by using ether for starting.    We had ours tuned by the Onan people this last spring and I would recommend that this be done on some regular basis (every 5 years ???).  That would depend mostly on usage.  Hope all goes well.  ----  Have a great day  ----  Fritz
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: Caflashbob on September 12, 2016, 12:15:11 am
There was a tune up for 6.5's.

Propane use may require a different oil if memory serves me on cars,

The Onan is a low compression flat head engine,  hard to kill
Title: Re: Onan 6.5 propane gen set.
Post by: NancyS on September 12, 2016, 12:39:54 am
FYI Onan Board replacement      Onan replacement board Index (http://www.dinosaurelectronics.com/Onan_boards.htm)