Carver Owners Forum

Hi Fellas,
I’m having some trouble with my 5kw Westerbeke gas generator. The engine itself seems fine, but when I try putting load on the generator, it dies. I’ve been trying to adjust the electronic governor, but now the speed adjustment doesn’t seem to be doing anything no matter which way I turn the screw. The generator only has 830 hours on it, but I’m thinking that I should replace the electronic governor.
Westerbeke has been awesome with advice, sent me a bunch of diagnostic tests, but nothing has helped so far.
Has anyone had any such problems with your Westebeke generators?
Thanks for any help as always

Have you for sure resolved the fuel delivery problem you were having ?

As with any engine one of the first steps in diagnosis and tuning should be a compression test, visual check plugs etc.
Now if that screw is the idle fuel mixture and it is now too lean then for sure the engine will stall from lack of fuel when loaded. Perhaps the carb needs a cleaning, jets, emulsion tube etc. Even if it is something else that is a good regular maintenance item to complete.

Personally I would avoid adjusting the engine rpm/speed without being aware of the electrical output ( HZ spec ) that has to be met.

Thanks bud37. The engine runs excellent, but I think that it’s the electronic sensors. The electronic speed controller is what adjusts the rpm when there is load put on the generator. It has a screw that controls the engine rpm either up or down and another adjustment for the gain, which is supposed to regulate how quickly the engine speeds up when put under load. According to the Westerbeke manual, you’re not supposed to regulate the speed with the throttle linkage, but using the electronic throttle controller.
The newer model controller has 2 buttons to regulate the rpm up and down rather than a screw. I have a Westerbeke rep coming to see if he can diagnose what the problem might be, but I hate it when I can’t figure out what’s wrong. I know that the speed control screw on the electronic speed controller was working before, but now it doesn’t seem to speed up or slow down the engine. So I’m guessing that it’s that that is causing the problem. Only $650 cdn for a part the size of a deck of cards!

Good stuff, let us know what he finds.

I once had a Westerbeke on a houseboat I owned, granted it was a larger model but, the Governor oil needed to be changed every 300 hours. the symptom of a lag in responding would occur when and AC or water heater kicked on. Sometimes it would stall. Changed the oil and the problem was gone. It was a precise amount of oil as well, I believe 3 oz. Just a thought as it was a hard one to diagnose.