Club car fe290 rebuild?

[Bigdozer]

96 club car ds with a fe290d. On a 10 minute ride up the road today and the motor started knocking. At first it was real low. I thought it was the starter/generator adjusting rod bolt had backed out and was rubbing on back of the pulley for starter belt. It did that about 2 weeks ago and i got it tightened up with needle nose vise grips while i waited on clutch puller that i ordered. Well it wasnt the bolt.
I checked the oil and it was a little low but light never came on. It did smell like it had a little fuel in it. I pushed it home and am now pulling motor. Knock doesnt sound like its in bottom of motor. Sounds like it in the head. Pulled spark plug and got it to tdc, shined flashlight to see piston top and checked for play. It has some slop in it.
Anyone ever had a broken wrist pin in one of these? I'll have motor out tomorrow and probably tear it down this week. With a 2 year old and 11 year old its hard to find free time nowadays. Lol

[Bigdozer]

A little background on cart. Bought it from a old man on craigs list. Long story short it sat outside for 3 years with no spark plug in it. Motor was seized. Took motor out and got it unseized with marvel mystery oil and a little heat. Put new carb, throttle cable, and fuel lines on it and it fired right up. It did smoke more than normal so i knew it needed piston and rings. And it backfired a couple times through exhaust and out carb once.

[Bigdozer]

Pics

[Bigdozer]

Rod cap bolts were loose. Hopefully crankshaft is still good. Mechanic at work thinks it will be fine. Gonna take the head off tomorrow and get piston and rod out. If crankshaft is fine the plan is to install all new bearings, rod, piston and rings and gaskets. If valves arent bent we'll lap them and clean up head. Any other suggestions while it's tore down? Do the rod bolts have keepers from factory to stop them from backing out? Gonna stay with all oem size parts. Pic is a little blurry but you can see the bolts back out.

[ezgo on fire]

The rod itself is the bearing. You'll have to buy a new rod. Crank will be fine. There may be some built up aluminum. I use muriatic acid to dissolve the aluminum on the crank. Then polish it up. As far as the valves I would just buy new ones if there worn at all. They will start to grove around the head seat. There cheap. Usually ezgo robin motors were bad about connecting rod bolts backing off. Not the Kawasaki motor. I lock tite mine in. And torque.


The muriatic acid is very strong stuff. Wear glasses and gloves. And have baking soda and water mixed up. To dissolve.

[Bigdozer]

Thanks for the info. I did see the valves were cheap so they will be replaced. Definately getting some loctite.This is the first time i've ever been inside a motor like this. Luckily the mechanic at work knows his stuff.

[Bigdozer]

Rod is trash. The piston could be used but i'll just buy the rebuild kit with everything included. Crank cleaned up pretty good.

[ezgo on fire]

Cool. Those motors are easy to rebuild. While you have it apart check the butterfly screws in the carb. I've seen two different carts where they have backed off and went threw the motor.

[Bigdozer]

Funny you mention that. The butterfly was missing when i bought the cart. It had some kind of sealant between the bowl and carb. I didnt want to mess with it so i ordered a new one. When i got the new one i thought the butterfly needed to be taken out like the old one. Took me a few days to figure out it needed to have it to idle right. Lol

[schillww]

Originally Posted by ezgo on fire

Cool. Those motors are easy to rebuild. While you have it apart check the butterfly screws in the carb. I've seen two different carts where they have backed off and went threw the motor.

I just did a basket case, reseated the valves , honed the cyl new oem rings, rebuilt the carb , new generator and clutch since that wasn't in the basket one important reassembly tip make sure the timming marks line up and that plastic cam shaft is all the way into the oiler groove .use plenty of assembly lube / coat the cyl with oil , I had a great break in run for 20 minutes at medium throttle , first 3 minutes was smokin excess oil in the cyl. P.S my engine is a Kawasaki 1997 to current clockwise rotation , the starter generator is reversable so you can run it in either direction a matter of one wire .