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OT: 23 Hp Kawasaki engine cutting out

S

Sid_GA

Member
My son has a Hustler zero-turn mower with a 23 hp Kawasaki engine on it and after about 45 minutes of mowing it will begin to cut out like it is running out of gas. You can switch tanks and it will smooth out for about another 45 minutes before it starts cutting out again. Switch tanks and runs fine again. The shop let it run sitting for over an hour and couldn't get it to cut out so it only seems to do this under load. We thought it might be the caps are not venting but you can remove the cap and it will not run smooth until you switch tanks. He only uses non-ethanol gas and the see-thru filter has gas when it is cutting out. We tried Sea-foam and this didn't help. The shop cleaned the carb and that didn't fix it either. This appears to be a fuel issue but we have bypassed the safety switches one at a time thinking it may be one of them but that did not fix it either. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sid
 
Are you shutting it off when you switch tanks???? I have had the ignition igniters act this way. You had to shut the motor off for them to kind of reset. If your not shutting it down than I am baffled too. LOL
 
No we are not shutting it off. Just stop forward movement and it will catch up some but not completely. The blades are still turning when we switch tanks and it clears immediately. Thanks, Sid
 
My neighbor has one of these and when he first got it, he found out the Kaw carb demands absolutely clean fuel. A little dirt in the carb will bring these to their knees...
 
I also think it may be in the carb but I don't understand why switching tanks clears the problem for a while. Thanks, Sid
 
Check the oil!!!!!! My Kohler was doing the same thing, pretty much, but would cut out faster. Youngest boy dumped too much oil in it. I drained and refilled to proper level and its been fine for over 10 hours now.
 
I am not familiar with this mower but something tells me something is haywire with the valve that switches tanks. It might be vibrating into a half closed position if that is possible.
 
I have thought about the valve too. But the handle does not move. Of course the inside could possibly be loose. We may have to bypass the valve and see what happens. Thanks, Sid
 
So it is a manual valve. I had a problem with an electric valve only it stuck where fuel was pulling from both tanks at the same time.
 
An engine idling uses a lot less fuel than one working.

I would suspect lines or vents clogged.
 
That switching the valve seems to make a difference, if the valve will come apart, open it up, look for something inside the valve restricting the flow, or bad orings letting it draw air.

Might also try replacing the fuel lines, sometimes the inside will collapse and let chunks of rubber break loose.

A simple test would be to drop a line directly into the tank through the cap, connected to to pump, see if that makes a difference.

What kind of filter is on it? A plastic screen type? That is what is supposed to be there. If it's paper, or one of the screw together glass cylinder type, that can be a problem. Put one of the glass ones on an ATV, a week later it quit, no fuel. Found the inside gaskets were rubber instead of neoprene, they swelled and completely stopped the fuel flow!
 
does it have a fuel pump. Used to have an onan and it did the same thing. turned out to be the fuel pump.
 
I have a Husqvarna with the Kawa it did the same thing. I changed fuel pump and filter, didn't help. Finally took the fuel line loose at the filter and blew air back through to both tanks,problem solved must have been trash in the line or tank valve.
 
We have bypassed the valve and will see how that affects it. The filter is a new OEM one and looks good. I will post back when he has a chance to run it a while. Thanks for all the info. Sid.
 

The 23HP Kawi on my Ferris ZT was loosing power after mowing awhile, and it got so that it was happening sooner and sooner. It turned out to be a bad coil.
 
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