Northern Lights Gen Set High Temp

Just went through a troubleshooting list to find out why my 8KW gen set temperature reads between 205 and 200 degrees when the IR read at the temperature sensor reads 185 degrees. After replacing the temperature sensor, temperature gauge and removing any and all pipe dope from the threads on the temperature sensor, the temperature gauge still read hot. I talked with the tech at Northern Lights and he told me that since the temperature was reading hot and the unit was not shutting down by it's own safeties then the problem was low voltage on the gauge. Low voltage equals high temperature. He said to start looking for a loose wire or a connector that had some corrosion on it.
After taking off the sound enclosure I did find that the electrical "Box" mounted on top of the round generator unit had the four mounting screws either missing or loose. And one of these mounting screws had two green wires and one white wire under it. I tightened the screw with the three wires under it and BINGO.
Perfect temperature read out. (See Pictures Below) Hope this helps someone else in their troubleshooting.

Pictures

Thanks, some thing about the saying always " check the ground " !!

Great timing. I'm just doing the wiring on my NL 643 genset and this is exactly the kind of thing that would give a guy the miseries for hours, if not days! Thanks for the heads-up!

Wow-that is a cool little "nice to know" piece of info. Of all the things I would check as a cause of either overheating or a bad gauge reading, that one would not even make the list.

Thanks for sharing!

The temp gauges in the pilot house and fly bridge for the main read high. There is a Murphy gauge in the ER that is accurate. I'll have to check for poor wiring! Thanks.

Richard

If we really looked we would probably find several connections that have corroded or worked loose one way or another. Many (or should I say most) of the electrical issues have to do with ground connections. Just hard to keep up with it all.
An anti corrosion compound helps to an extent, and any connection I make whether it be ground, battery, or AC connections gets a liberal coating. I tend to use no ox-ID, and have for years.