Recent content by coder

It is a long shot but easy to check: At the bottom of the engine block there is a grounding bolt. This sometimes comes lose and if it does, you have intermittent spark . Had this problem on mine, It would stall out like yours. Replaced the battery 2x before I figured out it was the ground wire...

The heat gun has a red-hot heating coil inside. If there are any fuel vapors present, it is hot enough to ignite them. In a closed space, an explosion, and possibly fire can be unpleasant. In this case, you could argue that prior to pulling apart the fuel line connection, there were no fuel...

I just did. Have 10 hours on my 52" ari apex ( about the same as the gravely hd). The factory new blades were rather badly out of balance. I have a wall mounted ball bearing blade balancer. Took me 1/2 hours per blade to get them balanced. Runs noticeably better in every way with the new...

It is not entirely clear why they specify a 15w50 or 20w50 motor oil for this application. Some people think it is just a lazy spec, which goes like "oh well motor oils are easy to get so why not" There are some who think the multigrade SAE viscosity they ask for is optimal for the high...

NealS, what did you do, drill out the deck for the extra pulley? Did it help? How did you prevent the deck from rusting there, where the powder coating is drilled out? Sounds like a rational mod, I am just worried that they would cancel my warranty on the deck. Unclear what you mean by...

Guilty, I tend to be a bit heavy on theory. I am a software guy. :-) AFAIK For the typical small 2 cylinder engine in the 15-30 hp range the correct minder measures in the 0-8 inch range. My Kawi FR691 w a new filter pulls about 1" . I am planning on changing the outer filter when it gets to...

Bert, Do you use filter minders (Vacuum gauges) to actually measure the air filter restriction? I get that too much restriction can cause running rich, e.g.: if the restriction increases beyond 4" (afaik) and the filter is supposed to be replaced at 7-8" . I would love to hear someone...

Bert, thanks for providing the Australian context. I was already convinced that fearmongering here in the US had no rational basis. My filter minder demonstrates to me that the snorkel style airbox, and the safe and efficient double cylindrical filter does not cause undue air restriction...

I asked my mower (Ariens) dealer about whether he or Kawasaki offers the cylindrical filters as an upgrade, and he looked at me like I had 2 heads. So it does not look like they do in the US. All these upgrade kits are either put together as a DIY solution, or some enterprising companies...

Are those kits aftermarket kits, or are they "approved" by Kawasaki? Not that I care much, just curious. ( I already convinced myself it is a good idea to put a cylindrical filter on the engine, without any downside) Super expensive,. Partly because they replace the air cooiling shroud, which...

It looks like this mower deck used to have a severe harmonic vibration and I think they fixed this to some degree by incorporating the "anti vibration kit" they were giving people to try out. I am thinking this, because the original tensioning arm used to be black, and now it is silver, just...

Motorcycle oil may be OK. I ended up not going for it, because I am worried about friction mods to work better with the typical wet clutch. The gist seems to be to make the oil a bit less slippery, which is not particularly useful for the Hydros. I felt that was a relevant difference, but...

I did the "reposition tensioning pulley to increase belt tension". Repositioning the tensioning pulley made the deck vibrate less overall, esp at full RPM. Instead of the belt section whipping between the pto and the center pulley, now the tensioning arm is bouncing excessively. Ariens...

Do they? I could not find anything like that. This was the first thing I asked my dealer, if there was a filter / airbox upgrade option for the FR engine and he said "no". aslthough he agreed they "should". So now I am curious. where does Kawasaki offer a Baldwin airbox upgrade, and...