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Northern Lights “Crank Failure” Error

Discussion in 'Generators' started by DOCKMASTER, Jul 5, 2022.

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  1. DOCKMASTER

    DOCKMASTER Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2012
    Messages:
    1,396
    Location:
    Ketchikan, Alaska
    Had a recent issue on my fairly new Northern Lights 9kw gen. Posting in case anyone has same problem. When initiating a start it would go through pre-heat then when it should crank over I would get a Crank Failure error message. Battery was not an issue. Given this is a new gen with only a few 100 hours I figured it must be an issue in the remote or onboard control panel. My NL 20kw uses exact same panels. Switched both remote and onboard panels but issue remained and panels ran the 20kw with no issues. Pulled start wire off start solenoid and put a meter on it to see if I was getting voltage to initiate start. Determined no voltage being applied during start command. Worked back to start relay. Pulled relay from base and tapped it on firm object. Plugged it back in and gen fired right up. I figured relay was bad. Went to local NL dealer to buy a new relay. Tech there told me starter relays almost never fail but the wires and blades in the base get lose or corroded. I had no corrosion. I bought a new relay and a spare just in case. The tech told me to put corrosion block on the blade terminals and make sure the wires on the bottom are pushed firmly into the base. I did as instructed and installed the new relay as precaution. Gen ran great over the holiday weekend with several start/stops.
    So I can’t say for certain if a wire was lose in the base or if the relay was going bad but it was an easy fix once I located the source of the problem. Hope this helps if anyone else has a similar problem.
  2. Capt Ralph

    Capt Ralph Senior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2004
    Messages:
    12,649
    Location:
    Satsuma, FL
    We had a good bug involving those relays in an Oh-No.
    Pull the relay out, all pins and sockets looked good. Plug in back in and the glow-plug may, may not get juice.
    Rotated with known good relay, same issue.
    What was happening, a female spade connect was loose in the socket assembly and had been pushed down by one of the relays male spade pins.
    Making a poor connection.
    Volt meters always showed all good. But once the current started flowing to the glow-plugs, the poor connection would fail.
    Since then, when I can, I check the back of a relay socket when plugging in a relay and watch any wires move or get pushed out a little.
    Even just a finger pushing up from behind I think has helped improve the seating of these relays on other services.