[AT] OT--Kawasaki starter trouble

[charlie hill]

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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