Here’s what’s happening. I press the start button as normal and release. You can hear the fuel being primed and the genny starts w/o a hitch. It runs for about 20 to 25 seconds and then shuts down, after releasing some air.
I suspect what happened is that I left the genny running while the part on a slight incline and with a bit less than half a tank of fuel. And so, the genny ran short of fuel and lost its prime. And now I’m stuck w/o knowing how to bleed off the air.
Anyhow, that’s what I suspect. And will keep digging on this end to find a solution. Russell
I’m guessing you’re wondering what the error means?
It’s triggered when the starter is engaged too long (cranks the engine too long) as a measure to not burn-up the starter motor.
I’m not sure if manually holding down the start button too long (after it actually started) will trigger it or not.
My guess is this error detection was created with the advent of the autostart function where there isn’t a human there to say “Something wrong – it’s taking too long for the engine to start” or just to let you know it failed to start altogether. John Fitzgerald
In simple terms, normally that would be caused by one of two reasons.
First, out of fuel
Second, plugged fuel filter, transfer pump or electric solenoid that opens the fuel control on the injection pump.
All indications are one of the above, Highly unlikely the injection pump has failed/broken. The Bosch Mini pumps are very reliable. Dave M.
The guys have you on the right track. You can bleed the fuel system at the banjo bolt on top of the filter. From there the fuel system should be self-priming. To go further you’d have to crack the fuel line fitting at each injector.
RESOLUTION!
I was fortunate enough to have a mobile tech come to take a look at the OVERCRANK problem and he was able to resolve the problem.
The OVERCRANK error code is exactly as John Fitz explained. It’s an error associated with the starter trying to engage for too long a period… or too frequently. This can certainly be caused by low/no fuel as was suggested. But that was not the cause of the error in this instance. The problem was not related to a fuel problem at all.
Here’s what was happening:
When I would start the generator, it would self-prime as normal and then start right up. It would run for about 20 seconds and make a high pitched sound for about 4 or 5 seconds that sounded very much like the air was being released from a compressor. The generator would continue to run, and about 10 seconds later, it would make the high pitched sound again… and then shut down with the OVERCRANK error code.
Everybody that heard the high pitched sound thought it was air being released — IT WAS NOT. IT WAS THE STARTER ENGAGING and trying to restart the generator, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS RUNNING.
This is what I was told happens on the Power Techs: While they’re running, they’re also sending a signal that lets the unit know it’s generating electricity. If it is NOT generating electricity, it “assumes” the generator is not running and tries to restart.
So what happened on my unit, was that vibrations had caused the lug on the wire than sends the signal to break, and the unit basically didn’t know it was generating. The broken lug was in the control box and would have been an easy fix if I had even thought to look in the control box. The thing that made this so hard to diagnose was that the sounds coming from the generator sounded so much like escaping air, everybody that looked at it initially thought it might have had to do with air in the fuel line and some quirk was causing it to escape at high pressure.
One more quick comment on the high pitched air sounds coming from the generator. The sounds were so similar to high pressure escaping air, that even the generator tech was scratching his head for the first few minutes. It wasn’t until he started laying his hands on the generator and could feel the additional vibrations, that he realized what it was.