[AT] OT--Kawasaki starter trouble

[Mike]

Can you bypass the neutral start switch with jumpers? What happens if 
you try the starter without it being attached to the engine? I feel your 
pain, I just sent through an electrical problem on our Polaris 
Sportsman, intermittent start/no start. I hate electrical problems.  Mike M

On 8/6/2013 10:18 PM, jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:
> 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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