I give them plenty of credit for their safety practices but it only takes a tiny slip-up caused by a momentary failure to follow procedure for a tragedy to happen. While I fully understand the thought behind what you wrote, nothing contained in your post should be considered to be an excuse for not using a transfer switch. On another forum, a member was asking for for some advice about his generator. He thought it might have become damaged. WHY???? Simple. There was a storm. His power went out. He went to his panel and flipped off the main. He went to his garage and used his custom made double male end cable to connect his genny to his welder outlet in the garage so that it would backfeed his main panel. He started up the genny and left it running so his wife would have electricity while he was out. His wife was monitoring the radio and learned that the power would be turned back on in a few minutes time. She went to the garage and turned off the generator. She then went back into the house and flipped the main breaker back on in the service panel. She then realized that she had NOT uplugged the generator and started to back to the garage when suddenly the power was restored. By the time she reached the garage, smoke was now coming from the generator so she quickly unplugged it. I have yet to read an update as to what damage, if any, was suffered by the genny. Like I said... it only takes a brief second of inattention to create a dangerous situation. Had she not run back to the garage, the genny might have caught fire. Who's to say what may have transpired after that. There's a right and wrong way to do many things. This is one of those things where doing it wrong can have many disasterous results.

Have you found the failure reason? If not, I am willing to help you out. Usually, reasons for the diesel generator fails are as follows: 1. Battery failure The single most frequent service call for generator failure is related to battery failure. 2. Low coolant levels The most obvious cause for a low coolant level is either an external or internal leak. Pay close attention to any visible puddles of coolant during weekly inspections of the unit(s). 3. Low coolant temp alarms Low coolant temp alarms are mainly the result of faulty block heaters. 4. Oil, fuel, or coolant leaks 5. Air in the fuel system This is a common problem with newer generators that are not run on a regular basis. 6. Ran out of fuel Mechanical fuel level gauges may not always be accurate. 7. Breaker trip If a breaker trips after the automatic transfer switch (ATS), the generator will not start. 8. Fuel Line Obstruction Solution: Check whether the pipeline is smooth or not. 9. Fuel Injector Problem – Little fuel injection or fuel injection is not atomized Solution: Remove the fuel injector, connect it to the high pressure oil pump, pry the fuel injection pump plunger spring and observe the spray condition. If necessary, wash the injection pump. 10. Valve leakage Solution: Check the valve clearance, valve spring, as well as the sealing of the valve guide and seat. If the seal is not good, you should make a repair. Hope it is useful for you. To know more reasons, here is a article will be helpful.

The three horizontal buses in the QO panel are elecrically identical. It doesn't matter which one it goes to. In a main panel, there is no distinction. In a subpanel, you remove the bolt that connects these buses to the ground and install vertical ground bars to the panel case through pre-tapped holes on either side of the breakers. As for your circuit conversion, you seem to have confusion. The wire with the white stripe is a neutral. Whatever this circuit was used for must have needed it. There may be a green/bare wire or this may be an old grandfathered range/dryer connection. The other two should be non-white/non-green colors (typically red and black). I'd remark the red as green and use it for the ground keeping the white as neutral.

You need to remove any ground to neutral bond in the generator itself. The generator will use the service grounding electrodes and conductors. Remember to bond the generator again if you use it for other purposes. In a main panel grounds and neutrals are bonded and may be mixed on the bars. They are separated in any other panel (sub-panels).