00 Club Car w/ FE290 shuts down

[MattFIT]

Hello, I have scoured the forums and I am stuck with this issue. I have a 2000 Club Car Serial: AG0048-961120 w/ a Kawasaki FE290D-AS17.

I recently got to this current job and we have a large fleet of club cars. I am a trained ASE certified automotive mechanic so I know my way around automotive but still learning about carts. This cart had recently got back from some major repair work when i arrived at this job. It had a motor rebuilt but I am suspect on the work and it has been back multiple times to the shop due to a multitude of other issues. The current issue I am having now is that as I run it for about 5-10 minutes it will completely shut down. The starter/gen will still spin but it will not run anymore until it cools down.

Here is what I know:

Ignition: There IS spark after shut down. I also changed coil to be sure. This is the first thing I look to initially. Does not seem like a spark issue.

Fuel: I changed out the fuel pump out and replaced the carb. The car was always suspect so I changed it anyways. It seems to be getting fuel.

Compression: I did a compression test on the cart. Prior to it shutting down and while it is shut down. I get 120 psi during both scenarios. I also pulled off the valve cover to see if I was having an issue with an expanding valve guide locking up and giving me compression issue. Seems to be moving.

Timing: This is don't know anything about. I was reading there is some issues with the timing chain on these Kawasaki but I don't see how this would effect it.

Heat: it definitely a heat related problem. I checked the fan when I pulled the cover off to get to the coil and it seemed free and clean.

I am completely stumped on this and honestly don't know which direction to go. I was thinking possibly the transmission might be causing issues but it will shut off in neutral as well as in gear. ANY help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Matt

[TahoeDawgZ71]

If you're certain that it's still producing a spark after it quits running then it rules out the coil and the RPM limiter. The RPM limiter is usually the culprit for this issue. It gets hot and causes the coil to stop firing. Are you positive that it's getting fuel? Take the pick-up tube out of the tank and make sure it's not got trash in the line.

[MattFIT]

I just double checked it as we speak. I pulled the line up to the carb and it was pumping fuel out of the line as a pretty good rate.

[jericho]

loose magnito,bad ground,bad plug or plug wire?

[stoneraaron31]

ignitor

[johnandret]

when it starts to die choke it to see if it picks back up at all , even for a couple seconds, that will let you know if its fuel related or not.

[Volt_Ampere]

Problems like this are almost always electrical. I would try disconnecting the RPM Limiter and see if it stays running.

[MattFIT]

Well it ended up being the coil. I went back and made sure the wiring running to coil had too continuity and combing through the electrical system. I could get it to fire and run for a little bit but would always bog down again. The next day the coil completely failed on it. Also the operator was also overfilling the motor with oil to compensate for a oil leak(just rebuilt motor ) and as it would rev up it would start to burn oil. So far so good and the operator has not broken it "yet". I work for a university and they beat these carts up pretty bad here.

So the moral of this story is "it always the coil"

Thank you all for the help.

[fishman296]

I'm having the same problem. Mine is a '95 ser. # EG9511-427558 and a Kawasaki FE290D-ES05 engine. I replaced the coil last year and now it will run just for a few seconds and shut down.

I think it might be starving for fuel. I already changed the fuel filter. Maybe the fuel pump is bad?

How would I disconnect the RPM limiter?

Thanks.

[MattFIT]

I had to do the same thing. The pump operates off vacuum but it can easily tested by removing the inlet hose to the carb and running it. It should pump out as the starter spins the engine for you.

As for the limiter. I am not 100% but I think I read it is located underneath the carb near the drain plug of the motor. Again I am not 100% on this but I think you can disconnect the limiter or at least the ground on the limiter and if the cart fires and runs it is more likely the the limiter that has gone bad. Possibly getting hot and shutting down the ignition system.

The reason I mentioned the issue above about checking compression on the motor. I had an incident with one FE290 where the valve guides go bad. As you run the motor the valve guides expand and lock up the valves and dropping compression. Through that it can shut the motor down. When it cools down it will retract and will run again. I know this is more likely worse case scenario and doesn't happen often.

As a train auto mechanic the same basic principle applies to these carts. Need fuel, fire, compression and timing to run but I think more often than not the problem is going to lie in the ignition system on these particular problems.m

Matt