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What the cat drug in.

#1

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

So a customer brings calls and says his coils are burning up. Sometimes quick, sometimes after an hour or so.
And this is what he brings.
From what I can find, it's a Kawasaki FC540V. But I'm not sure. It has no blower housing. The wires are a mess. The key switch has been replaced by a toggle switch and a push button. First things first, is making sure I have the right engine model number. And find a blower housing. Without that, it's going to overheat. I'm surprised it hasn't already.
LMAO.. Oh, and he wants an oil change. HA HA HA HA HA
Can someone tell me if I have the right engine model number? Or if I'm overlooking it somewhere.


20200320_183416.jpg20200320_182857.jpg20200320_182908.jpg20200320_182933.jpg


#2

R

Romore

Unless you have a lot of time on your hands and patience it should not have been unloaded. He probably wants an exact quote and ready in two days.


#3

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

I wouldn't touch it. Anybody who runs it without the shroud wouldn't get me to even look at it. What else is fried? " No thank you sir. I just dont think i can help you". After you get burned enough and lose enough money you will learn which customers you don't need. Did you tell him up front NOTHING can be warranted on it?


#4

B

bertsmobile1

Tell him you need the rest of the parts before you start .
Quote 10 hours of labour + parts if he has the missing bits and 15 hours if he does not have them.


#5

StarTech

StarTech

FC540V-FS15 single cylinder engine for serial A55628 and up. And this mower is definitely the up with the serial starting with a "B".


#6

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

The more I look at this, the more I want to keep this one the back burner.

I disconnected the kill wire, and tried turning it over. Other wires started smoking. lol..


#7

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Run away.


#8

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Hammermechanicman said:
Run away.
Click to expand...

Gonna see how much money he wants to put into it first.


#9

R

Rivets

Get money in advance with NO GUARANTEES, or have customer load it back up. Even then I would be telling him at least 1 month out at the earliest, unless he puts big money down. Those are off season projects.


#10

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Rivets said:
Get money in advance with NO GUARANTEES, or have customer load it back up. Even then I would be telling him at least 1 month out at the earliest, unless he puts big money down. Those are off season projects.
Click to expand...

The wiring on this thing is so screwed up, I can't even explain it. So here's a few pics.
Note how small the battery cables are. They're not even battery cables.
20200321_160549.jpg

There's like 3 wires connected to the one wire going to the fuel solenoid.

20200321_160500.jpg

I'm not even sure what was trying to be accomplished in these next pics. Someone trying to find a hot wire and/or ground to connect to?
20200321_160518.jpg
20200321_160447.jpg

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#11

7394

7394

Rivets said:
Get money in advance with NO GUARANTEES, or have customer load it back up. Even then I would be telling him at least 1 month out at the earliest, unless he puts big money down. Those are off season projects.
Click to expand...
(y)


#12

R

Ron_AU

Unless you can source a wiring diagram for the electrics and source the missing bits I'd give this one a miss as a hopeless case.

Owner might want to hear why you don't want to tackle it, or if he insists, how much it is going to cost to rewire everything. And fix whatever else you find wrong.


#13

StarTech

StarTech

I wouldn't even attempt to repair this without the wiring diagram which means getting a service manual. From what I gather here is the harness has been hacked and probably needs a complete replacement. The owner is probably unwilling the spend the money to repair this unit as it can be costly due to the induced damage.

Currently it is a basket case.


#14

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

StarTech said:
I wouldn't even attempt to repair this without the wiring diagram which means getting a service manual. From what I gather here is the harness has been hacked and probably needs a complete replacement. The owner is probably unwilling the spend the money to repair this unit as it can be costly due to the induced damage.

Currently it is a basket case.
Click to expand...

Exactly. And as soon as the customer answers his phone, after like 10 calls so far, I'll find out what he wants to do about this. As neglected as this is, one can bet that there's a lot more neglected as well. Belts, idlers, etc etc


#15

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Roll it outside and leave him a message to come get it. Trust me.


#16

tom3

tom3

Is that my brother-in-law's mower? Looks like some of his repair work. I cut him off years ago, not touching anything of his. I'd suggest the same here.


#17

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

I'm not touching it until I can get a hold of him. I've been trying since Saturday, and his phone is always off. He's not a poor man (not rich either). I think he's one of those who doesn't turn their phone on, unless he's using it. He's like 65 or 70. Old farmer type guy. A preacher/farmer/local truck driver.
I believe him to be a honest, respectful man.


#18

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Be afraid, be very very afraid.
Did he do this mess to the mower?
Did he get it cheap because some bozo did it? Either way will he want to put many hundreds of dollars in it? Probably not. Does he want it fixed right or some redneck hack job? Oh wait, he already has that. Have you priced out just the shroud let alone any other parts.


#19

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

He finally stopped by, I quoted him $300, and that I needed that upfront. I said it'll may not be 8 hours. But could be more. He about had a heart attack. He said "I just need to find out why it keep blowing coils out. It runs fines when it's got a new coil on it."
Then something about "If I put a lot of money in it and it still blows out the coils, it'll just be wasted money."
I told him that the reason its so much is because it would be fixed right. Probably with a new wiring harness, a blower housing, air filter cover and a real air filter. (He's using an old T shirt wadded up). But when it leaves here, it'll be right."

The $300 at was more than he wanted to put into it. So that was that. He said he'd be back this weekend to pick it up. I sure hated the way things went. He's a good guy. Has lots of trucker friends. Plus he's a preacher in the next town over. I could've gotten a lot of business from him.


#20

R

Rivets

You never lose business when you do the right thing. Any GOOD customer will appreciate your honesty.


#21

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Rivets said:
You never lose business when you do the right thing. Any GOOD customer will appreciate your honesty.
Click to expand...

He's old school. Rig it till it can't be rigged. Then toss it out.


#22

tom3

tom3

All he'd have to do is look at it and know it's a wreck. But some people just have no mechanical concept at all. (ie my brother-in-law)


#23

R

Ron_AU

Good that you walked away from it.
Or were allowed to.


#24

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

When I told him the blower shroud was needed to keep the engine from overheating, he says "I've been running it like that for years."

I'm thinking that Kawasaki engine is one awesome engine. A Briggs or Kohler would've probably overheated and blew up.


#25

Hammermechanicman

Hammermechanicman

Most likely it has overheated, many times and that is what is frying the coils. Glad it had a happyish ending. When you see stuff like this you know they don't want to put money into it. Don't be afraid to tell someone a piece of equipment would cost more to repair than it is worth. I do it all the time with the box store $100 chainsaws and $50 string trimmers. Some folks do get frustrated when i tell them to fix the cheap string trimmer they left gas in will cost at least $75. At least an hour labor and a carb kit and fuel lines and filter.


#26

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Hammermechanicman said:
Most likely it has overheated, many times and that is what is frying the coils. Glad it had a happyish ending. When you see stuff like this you know they don't want to put money into it. Don't be afraid to tell someone a piece of equipment would cost more to repair than it is worth. I do it all the time with the box store $100 chainsaws and $50 string trimmers. Some folks do get frustrated when i tell them to fix the cheap string trimmer they left gas in will cost at least $75. At least an hour labor and a carb kit and fuel lines and filter.
Click to expand...

He did mention that if I could fix it for $300, then he might go for it. But I told him I couldn't guarantee it to stay under $300. I was thinking about a new wiring harness, coil, blower housing. Plus a few other things, PLUS the $300 labor. A new harness, if I could find one, would drop the labor time down a lot. But without the OK to start making repairs, I didn't even bother looking up the cost or availability for one.
Thinking now, I should've looked it up first.

Oh well. Live & learn.


#27

NorthBama

NorthBama

I agree run from that project


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