[Archived]

My 10 kw Powertech gen has a remote radiator and 120 vac fan to cool it. But the front of the 4 cyl Kabota engine has a belt driven water pump. Once had belt break and it shut down due to overheat. You might investigate your gen for such a belt.

[Andy]

There is a water temperature switch but I do not know the location. This would account for the gen set starting and then gradually overheating. The fan belt on the 17.5 is behind a cover on the front of the unit but you should be able to confirm it’s working with out removing the cover. I check the tension occasionally thru a small area on the lower right side of the cover. Powertech has their manuals on line and they contain a good troubleshooting guide. Low oil or coolant would shut the generator down completely and not allow it to continue to overheat. I have talked with them a couple of times with questions and to order filters and spare belts and found them very willing to help.

[Archived]

Ditto what George said, check fan belt. Also, if you just did a coolant change, air could be the problem.

[Corey]

Thanks everyone. Sorry did not answer sooner but drove 2000 miles. Now have more pressing issue with major tranny problem.

[Archived]

Let us know the outcome when you have time.

[Dick]

Here is some of the rest of the story.

Managed to get the bus to Stewart and Stevens in Denver. Keep getting check tranny light, locked into fourth gear and code 5145 as only cide. That equates to a speed problem in the gearing specifically overspeed. Would shut engine down and would reset, then normal for a while.

Got here, and they have been great, got us right in. Now for the bad news. The antifreeze to transmission fluid intercooler failed. This allowed antifreeze into the tranny oil. It looked like brown milky substance. This COOKED the tranny. When we put the computer on the tranny there were more faults than I knew could exist, but still only one code being thrown, 5145.

We are now getting a new cooler and tranny. I will let every known when this is all done. But as I said before, they are being great and trying to get us out ASAP.

[Archived]

“antifreeze to transmission fluid intercooler failed. This allowed antifreeze into the tranny oil.”

How often does this happen? Anything that can be done to prevent it?

[Archived]

All of our Allison 6 speed transmissions have an intercooler if the coach has a retarder. I am not sure if it has one on coaches not equipped with a retarder. My question is if there was a manufacturing defect that led to the failure?

I know Kim takes extremely good care of his coaches (having bought one of them) and that kind of failure sounds like it would not be preventable unless there was a defect.

[gary]

My coach has the Jake and no retarder. It does have the intercooler obviously. Spoke with the people at S&S where the work is being done, and they stated the is no way t oprevent the problem. One of the mysteries is that the failure occurred with antifreeze contaminating the Transynd, and and no evidence of contamination of the antifreeze with Transynd. They do not understand this since the pressure on the transmission side is much higher than on the antifreeze side. To be sure they drained all of the antifreeze to take a good look, and it is clean. I had the complete cooling system flushed and cleaned in October as preventitive care. We are going to completely flush again today.

The intercooler is on its way, not in stock. The transmission is going in today. Need to be on road again ASAP.

[Archived]

I am going to guess the intercooler is a Prevost part and not an off the shelf component?

One failure is one too many.

[AL]

Now for some of the rest of the story.

New tranny working fine. I can not say enough good about Stewart and Stevenson in Denver. They were proefessional, willing to let me interact, and got the job done as quickly as possible. We are now in the Tetons, and it is beautiful.

Now about thegenreator. One of the techs that works on BIG generators helped us out. We found a wire that was not making good ocnnections. We thought that solved the problem. Now no longer overheating. BUT have problem wit hregulating voltage. Will run at 120/side as long as not loaded. As soon as I place a load, the voltage increases to above 140 a side, but amperature does not increase.

I think this means my automated voltage regulator is bad. If people agree will order new one from Powertech since that is only palce can get this from. I do not thin kthis is a true “generator or stator” problem. Any help appreciated.

[Fred F.]

I am curious, if you are willing to share, might you give us the cost of the trany and cooler repair. I am interested on how quickly a Prevost will empty my retirement account before I get one. Sorry to hear of your transmission problems, don’t want to make fun of your costly repairs. That is not my intentions. I know that these units are mechanical and prone to periodic breakdowns and scheduled maintance. I am coming to grips and feel life is too short to worry about money, Health and the enjoyment of life is so much more important. Glad you are back on the road.

[Richard]

When I was flying I was amazed at the number of aircraft owners who would be screwed if they had to replace an engine. they did not have the resources to take a hit like that.

Owning a bus is exactly the same thing. While the chances of major repairs are slim, we need to recognize for reasons far beyond our control expensive repairs are sometimes necessary. It is not because we have a Prevost, it is because any RV of similar size or features could have the possibility of requiring a large sudden expenditure also.

I learned that not only from aviation, but shortly after we got our first coach we saw it affects all coaches. We came upon another Prevost on the side of the road. At the time there were very few Prevost conversions so I pulled over to see what the problem was and to see if i could help. He had already called a wrecker because he hit a piece of steel from a truck spring. The steel hit and punctured the transmission.

When we are a long distance from home and we have to replace the engine or transmission we are not in a position to shop for the best price or even choose the best place. We just need to be prepared with whatever is necessary to get major needed repairs done.

[Archived]

I have used this regulator on two Powertech gens with no problem

Do a google search, copy and paste from the title bar above. VR634B-A Regulator

Then click on http://WWW.partsfortech

Price is $1790

[Kim]

Michael, email me, and I wil give you the answer.