Starter failure on Kawasaki engine

[Gary Fowler]

My Kawasaki powered mower with only 150 hours on it has a starter failure. One day it was working fine, next day not. It is 3 years old but is supposed to have a 4 year warranty. I hate to load it up and haul it to the dealer for a 15 minute repair that may take a week or more to get done.
My question is: has any one else had starter failures on Kawasaki engines? Mine is a FS 691V engine.

 

[STx]

Are you sure it's not just the solenoid or the switch? My experience has been that those are more common failures than the starter and either are easily and quickly repaired with a trip to NAPA.

 

[flyerdan]

That, and check the battery connections. They can look okay but develop a hard black deposit that acts like a resistor between the post and cable. Doesn't take much corrosion to cause problems, especially on high draw circuits.

 

[Gary Fowler]

It is the starter. I took it to the dealer since it was supposed to have a 4 year warranty. Now they say that Kawasaki only warrants the motor for 3 years and it was 3 years and 2 week. The dealer is working with the engine OEM to have it warranted parts and labor. I called today and they say they think they can get the parts warranted but not the labor. I told them fine, as long as you don't try to charge me more than 1 hour for the 20 minute job.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Just for info on this. If I removed the starter and used jumper cables, it spun like a top, torque was so much that I couldn't hold it down but put it in the engine and it just engaged the Bendix and stalled. I would sometimes turn the engine over slowly when cold.
Also I didn't think it was the solenoid since it engaged the starter ok. Dealer techs confirmed it was a bad starter.

 

[dragoneggs]

Thanks for the info Gary. I have what appears to be a very similar engine, FR651V in my Kubota Zero turn. The specs are almost identical except yours claims 23hp vs 21.5hp for mine. Same bore, stroke, compression. Kawasaki as a nice website on engines/specs/performance curves.

EFI Small Engines for ZTR, Riding & Push Mowers| Small Engines - Lawn Mower Engines - Parts - Kawasaki

 

[EddieWalker]

My water cooled Kawasaki 26hp starter wouldn't work for me on my Skag mower for no apparent reason. After checking all my safety switches, I realized that the bolts holding the starter in place where loose. I tightened them up and it worked great after that.

 

[woody]

A friend of mine called yesterday said his starter was bad on his FR691V, doing the same thing as yours will be putting one on this weekend.

 

[Gary Fowler]

A friend of mine called yesterday said his starter was bad on his FR691V, doing the same thing as yours will be putting one on this weekend.

How many hours on the engine before starter failure. I am trying to determine is this is a quality issue with the starter that should have been on a recall. When searching for a replacement, I found that they no longer make the original starter and have substituted a different one. It is possible that they had lots of failures with this starter