2010 RXV Help

[Bob-0]

Been outta the game for a while and I’m rusty lol. I have a 2010 RXV that misses when under a load. Previous to me, it has a new carb and a new fuel pump. I’ve tried a new coil, fixed the coil wire, ruled out the muffler, and set the valves at .006”. I’m stumped as I didn’t get to work on these engines much as they were new when I left.

Runs fine in neutral, and it does ok on flat ground, but at top speed it feels like it has a slight miss but not too noticeable. Once under a load, However, it will miss badly. Any chance you all have run across that before?

[CP241]

What does the spark plug look like? Color and condition?

You mentioned new carb, is it oem or chinaman special?

[Bob-0]

It’s fouled. Had put a new plug in because the old one hadn’t been changed for a while. The original complaint was that the car was flooding and wouldn’t run after being driven 15 or more holes (golf). That’s where the fuel pump and carb came in. I changed the plug and noticed the miss. The plug is wet and black when I pulled it to recheck.

I haven’t checked the spark yet while it acts up. It runs fine on flat ground and in neutral, but misses and will eventually come to a stop while barely spitting and sputtering.

I changed out the carb a second time and also changed the coil. Both carbs are from redhawk. All the carb gaskets are new.

I haven’t done a leak-down test, but compression is 150. I imagine the spark is breaking down when the engine is under load, but I’ll test today to confirm.

[CP241]

Originally Posted by Bob-0

It’s fouled.

I changed out the carb a second time and also changed the coil. Both carbs are from redhawk. All the carb gaskets are new.

I imagine the spark is breaking down when the engine is under load

I think you’re on to something here.

Do you still have the original oem carb? I’d give that a good cleaning first and put a new NGK spark plug in it. I’ve never had any luck with aftermarket carbs. The Kawasaki fe motors are finicky about the air fuel mixture and if it’s not just right they’ll act all sorts of funny.

Just to throw it out there, not knowing any history on this cart, if the gas is old or has water in it, it will do the same thing as well.

[Bob-0]

Originally Posted by CP241

I think you’re on to something here.

Do you still have the original oem carb? I’d give that a good cleaning first and put a new NGK spark plug in it. I’ve never had any luck with aftermarket carbs. The Kawasaki fe motors are finicky about the air fuel mixture and if it’s not just right they’ll act all sorts of funny.

Just to throw it out there, not knowing any history on this cart, if the gas is old or has water in it, it will do the same thing as well.

When I change the coil, I found the coil wire to wire harness had been chafing and had exposed the wire. I checked out several other engines on a bench and found the same thing. Chafing where they rub against the fan shroud. I cut the wire in half, stripped it and added a butt connector and heat shrinked it twice... one for waterproofing and the second a thick one to prevent chaffing. Haven’t noticed any difference before or after doing the coil and wire. I’ll check the spark and if it’s still good then I bet we have a need for an OEM carb. I have heard of bad carbs out of the box.

Thank you for the help. If I have any more questions I’ll be back, lol.

[Bob-0]

It was the carb. Did a few tests and low and behold it was still the carb.

Gotta be honest, not used to outta the box new parts being bad. The OEM ones are on back order still, so aftermarket was the only choice. Two out of 3 were bad out of the box, apparently. When I left to go to the airlines it wasn’t an issue with aftermarket parts. Crazy how Nivel buys up everything and then their quality goes down to Nivel standards. I’m assuming Nivel owns RedHawk now too, lol.

[CatCam]

Glad you got it fixed -- Funny that I just got hearing aids and finally can hear how bad my valves on my RXV were chattering. Pulled the Valve cover, sparkplug and rotated the engine to TDC. Wow - the gap way off! Set them to .004....and it seems to be a bit smoother. I had fits with an aftermarket carb on my 16HP Kohler mower. I got so frustrated I bought the Kohler rebuilt kit that cost 2x what the aftermarket carb cost! But now it runs fine!!

[CP241]

Originally Posted by Bob-0

It was the carb. Did a few tests and low and behold it was still the carb.

Gotta be honest, not used to outta the box new parts being bad. The OEM ones are on back order still, so aftermarket was the only choice. Two out of 3 were bad out of the box, apparently. When I left to go to the airlines it wasn’t an issue with aftermarket parts. Crazy how Nivel buys up everything and then their quality goes down to Nivel standards. I’m assuming Nivel owns RedHawk now too, lol.

Glad you got it and it was easy

Yeah the China stuff really is garbage. I don’t know if nivel owns red hawk or not, never looked. But they own pretty much every other piece of garbage you can find. Funny how they always seem to run better with a 20 year old carb soaked for a half hour in an ultrasonic cleaner than a brand new one out of the box. At least you had a couple others to try. There “are” decent China carbs out there, but you’ll usually go through several bad ones before getting a good one.