FR730V Suggestions?

intrex

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Hello everyone,

First post here.

My Kawasaki FR730V that has started to bog down pretty hard. It runs completely fine when the blades are not engaged. As soon as you engage the blades the motor instantly struggles. When moving through any grass the motor will bog down so hard that it stops. It's like what happens when you try to mow 8" of very thick grass with the deck set at 2" :).

I looked around the motor and believe that it is possibly a problem with one of the heads. One of the heads is completely clean and the other one has built up dried oil around the outside seal. I haven't seen any actual oil leaks.

What do you suggest? Should I just buy a completely new (used) set of heads like these a forgot about trying to troubleshoot my existing ones?


Should I attempt to take apart my existing head to see if it is something simple like a gasket? Anything simple I should try before attempting to open up the mower?
 

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Hammermechanicman

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Disconnect one plug wire and start engine. Does it start? How does it run?
Disconnect the other plug wire and start it. Does it start? How does it run?
Do you have a dead cylinder?
 
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StarTech

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Well first the seller is not willing to accept returns is a red flag. So you taking a real chance that something wrong with one or both heads. Also you do not reuse those metal head gasket anytime.

Now the complete new cylinder are listed for around $345 ea kit which is for one side and does not come with push rods. #1 is PN 99999-0627 and #2 is PN 99999-0628. They are around $270 off Amazon. So do want to risk getting a bad head assembly of go with a new product?
1677342347819.png
 
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intrex

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Well Damn,

I am running on one cylinder. The one from the picture that looks like it has dried oil around the seal won't fire up.

Ready for next test :).

Thanks.
 

Hammermechanicman

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Well Damn,

I am running on one cylinder. The one from the picture that looks like it has dried oil around the seal won't fire up.

Ready for next test :).

Thanks.
I would
1 check coil for spark
2 remove rocker cover and check valve lash.
3 if equipment available do a leakdown test.
4 if equipment not available remove head and check valves and head gasket.
 

intrex

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Thanks Hammer,

Will be testing the spark plugs and coil packs in the morning. Hoping it is one of those since I don't have any means to to a leakdown test.
 

bertsmobile1

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Right now you are only 1/2 way through the diagnosis .
So you have found out it is only running on 1 cylinder the next step is to find out whu
could be a bad coil a shorted kill wire , a dropped pushrod, bad valve lash etc etc etc
 

intrex

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Well,

It looks like this is simply a spark plug failure. I switched the plugs and now the other cylinder is the only one firing.

Headed out to get a new one in a few minutes. I ran this the mower for probably an hour on one cylinder. Do I need to be worried about damage that I may have caused? Should do any kind of extra maintenance knowing that it ran for a while on one cylinder?

Thanks,
 

bertsmobile1

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No
Get 2 new plugs they are cheap
The mower will probably smoke a bit for an hour or more while accumulated unburned fuel burns off
 
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