Kohler 6.5 Generator

[TwistedSister]

Facing a catastrophic failure on my kohler 6.5 genset.

this is a 1998, about 1100 hours on it.

over the winter, I had a oil seal on the motor side replaced due to a leak.

The tech took the stator and rotator assembly off to get the

shaft on the motor side out to bring back to the shop to

replace the seal. he said this is the only way to get to the seal.

He came back, put it all back together. In the spring, I launched and the genset ran like shit. called tech, he said to let it run for a little bit and see if it works itself out - winterized and all, made sense. We ran it for about 2 hours and ended up just shutting it down. he came back out, changed spark plugs with out even starting it and it ran good. For about 15 hours - then it happened. Dark smoke poured out of the generator side exhaust and smelled like rubber burning. shot out little pieces of burned plastic/rubber ... dead.

they came back out, took it apart and the spinning thing in the rotator assembly actually broke off.

Now the battle begins - the tech took it all apart, we think he did not put it back together correctly, they say it is just coincidence.

anyone ever have this happen to them?

whats your take on it - why would this part snap off if not because it

was put together wrong.

any one ever sue a tech before for a faulty repair?

TwS

[Chisox]

The best way to service the generator as you have described would have been to yank the whole damn thing out of the boat, then do the work on the bench back at the shop. Working on a piece of equipment on a bench is pretty much a piece of cake. Same piece of equipment in a bilge? Different story...

But to prove that re-assembly was the cause of the failure? That's gonna be a tough one...

[Sans Peur]

2 Hours running like crap and 15 hours running OK. I would think if there was an assembly problem it would have shown up much sooner. I have a forklift shop and believe me, my mechanics do make the occasional mistake. It ususlly shows up pretty fast.