[AT] OT--Kawasaki starter trouble

[Thomas O Mehrkam]

Maybe this will help.

http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/141311107-kawasaki-mule-2500-2510-2520

On 8/7/2013 5:41 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> John,  two things come to mind for you to ponder.  Does your battery have
> enough amperage and is it in good shape?
> Does the engine have a compression release when it is starting and is it
> functioning properly?
> On the compression release, years ago I had a riding mower with similar
> starting/starter problems.  I finally scraped the thing.
> Some time later I read that the engine in it had an automatic compression
> release that would fail to operate if he engine oil
> wasn't changed regularly enough.   The mower was already gone so I was never
> able to find out if there was any truth to it.
> Don't know that it has a thing to do with your Mule.  Just throwing it out
> there for you to consider.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
> Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 10:18 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: [AT] OT--Kawasaki starter trouble
>
> Pardon the OT post but I’m running out of ideas. I’m having trouble with the
> starter on my 2000 model Kawasaki Mule. To be honest, I’ve had starter
> trouble for several years. I’ll start from the beginning. When it was about
> 5 years old, the starter went out. Don’t remember what, could have been
> clicking, grinding, sluggish. I ordered an aftermarket from DB Electrical to
> replace the high dollar Denso that came on it. Starter problems seemed
> solved for a couple more years. Eventually troubled returned so I ordered
> another one from DB. Problems went away again. About 2-3 years ago they came
> back. Couldn’t figure out why the starter wouldn’t engage. Turned the gear
> around on the flywheel, no help. Cleaned things up, swapped starters a few
> times and it sort of went to working. Last year, more starter trouble. I
> remembered that a lot of Deere riding mowers with Kawasaki engines have
> starter trouble, so much so that the dealers stock a “fix” for the problem.
> It’s just a a relay (I think) you add in the harness, cost about $30 and
> takes 15 minutes to install. I picked one up and put it on, problems went
> away for a while. For the past 3-4 months the starter sometimes grinds
> instead of engaging. I sent one of the Chinese starters as well as the
> original Denso to a rebuild shop to be checked. They supposedly rebuilt
> them. I put the original back on and to begin with it worked fine, then it
> would vary in RPM’s or just click. Put on the supposedly rebuilt Chinese
> starter and it grinds instead of engaging like the other aftermarket one. I
> added a ground wire between the battery and the starter frame and cleaned
> the original ground, still no luck. Checked the voltage at the battery and
> where it connects to the starter (solenoid bolts onto the starter), it shows
> around 14, drops to 12.5 or so while cranking. When checking across the
> solenoid while cranking it shows around 12.5, until it fails to engage, then
> it shows 10.8. I ran a jumper wire from the hot battery wire to the blade
> terminal on the solenoid to bypass the switch, still doesn’t work correctly.
> The only other thing I haven’t eliminated is the neutral start switch, could
> it possibly fail slightly and prevent me from getting full voltage to the
> starter? Something up with the solenoid—all 3 of them?
>
> Anyone got any ideas on this besides buying another starter/solenoid
> assembly? I find it hard (but not impossible) to believe all 3 are
> bad—remember 2 were supposedly inspected and repaired.
>
> John Hall
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