Kawasaki fh500v engine stalls very odd

[Mslandry]

Hi guys,
New to this stuff. Hope you can help.
I have a 15 year old Ferris hydrowalk commercial mower. It has been a very good mower. Well maintained.
Lately it stalls when leaning hard to the left. Going straight up a hill or leaning to the right it's been fine.
Today it stalled and would not restart. I pushed the mower around so it was leaning to the right and it restarted.
I've replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter and carb. I've also replaced the two coils and spark plugs last fall. I just re-adjusted the spacing on and cleaned the coils to no avail. I also replaced the breather last fall as well. Changed the oil and filter ( it needed it, not because I thought it would help).

The hydrostatic drive oil is dirty, but I can't see that doing anything to stall the motor., but I really don't know. I ran it today for twenty minutes at full throttle; no problem.
Did have a stuck valve last fall which bend a lifter. All was cleaned and changed. Ran fine all year. This issue started three weeks ago. Help, I'm out of ideas.

Thanks guys!

 

[Rivets]

I would check the fuel tank for something which is blocking the fuel outlet when leaning left. Post your Ferris numbers, so we can see which unit you are talking about.

 

[Mslandry]

Hi Rivots,
Nothing in the tank or lines.
I have a Ferris model DDS52 with a DDSKAV17 power head.
Last week I'm on a hill leaning to the left, the motor begins to stall. I turn the mower directly up hill ( not moving just aiming it up hill) and it runs fine. Bring it back to the original line and it begins to stall again. Did this five times in s row with the same results.
One other thing to add, when I pulled the rear spark plug, it was "wet", which indicates it wasn't firing. I've ordered a new coil and plugs just to see if I might have something damaged in there.
I just wish the system would just die, then I could figure out what really wrong.
Thanks for any help you can offer.
Frustrating!!

 

[logan01]

Sounds either electrical or mechanical. I'd check all hot wires. One could possibly either lose it's connection when leaning to the left or you could have a wire going to ground under the same condition. Whatever drive mechanism operates the walk-behind could be getting in a bind while leaning left, bogging the engine down to the point of killing it. Both of these could could display themselves with a wet plug. I'd say electrical if choosing one. For the heck of it, does leaning left or right appear to have more or less fuel feeding (gravity after fuel pump) to either cylinder or by looking at it does that appear to be a non-issue? I guess one thing you could try regarding fuel starvation is to remove the air filter, run the mower and position it to leaning left and while running, either a very quick you or an assistant can lightly spray carb cleaner or gas into the carb and see if it continues to run or not. Or if you can lean it left in a shop, with a hoist or whatever you might have, that should simulate the mowing conditions enough to troubleshoot this issue. That'd take care of the fuel question.

 

[Mslandry]

Logan
Thanks for the input. I'll try running it as you've indicated, this weekend. I'll post the results.
Thanks again

 

[logan01]

Good luck with it. Strange one but really want to see what it turns out to be. Still giving thought to it.

 

[Rivets]

Wet plug, that throws us a curve. I still lean toward a fuel problem, but now I would also be checking for a short in the coil kill wire. Can you externally disconnect the kill wire from the coil and test the unit? This test will tell you if you have a fuel or electrical problem.

 

[Mslandry]

Ok guys,
I found it. I re-wired the coils to take out all wiring from the system. Hocked the two coils through a simple switch, then to ground. It ran fine! Finally!!!!
So it's either the kill switch, the key switch or the wiring itself. Either way, I know what I'm hunting for.
Thanks for all your input! Much appreciated!
Take care!

 

[msmallenginerepair]

Does it have a low oil sensor? It may be stalling on one side due to a false reading by that sensor?