13HP Kawasaki rant

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by ncorry

Is this the same 13 HP Kawasaki that is in the current Cushman Hauler/ EZGO Workhorse? I think it is a Kawasaki FJ400D.

Yes same motor. My EZ dealer raved about them so much I took delivery of an off lease model, he hand picked it saying this one goes faster than the rest. I was excited to have a new gasser on the ranch. Well, it was so bad I asked the dealer to swap it out with another, saying there must be something wrong with this one!? Well second one was the same and I sold it straight out.
The Robins was a sweetheart. Too bad it was a throw away motor designed with no crankshaft journal bearings or they would still be trading them today.

[mikeasis]

We have Kawasaki mules at work and I can say I wouldn't own one. The throttle body/fuel injection issues alone would keep me from ever owning one.

Our club car carryalls are also another thing id run from. The Drive train is nothing but a ticking time bomb. Driveshafts, axles and differentials.

They have recently bought a few JD Gator Transports big 4 seater with a 3 cylinder Subaru engine. One has been to the dealer 4 times now with belt and clutch issues. When working properly they run like the wind And I gotta tell you these things are loud.


Im a 4 stoke guy, love me an old honda 4 stroke but someone gave me an old Yamaha G1 and I love that thing to death.

[latenite23]

I have the fj400d series engine in a ez go sport 2+2, looking for a wiring diagram for it. Also it is idle up to stay running and would like to install a kill switch to shut it off. But I am worried if I install it where the brown wire goes into the ignitor, I will short out the ignitior. Any help appreciated.

[nickdalzell1]

Just for the record, I'm not some curmudgeon stuck in the past. My car is a 2005, my truck a 2006, and I love smartphones, tech and have tons of tablets and PCs at home, and one gaming rig in the living room tied to a 65" UHD TV.

But, when something is changed for the sake of change, for no real apparent reason, and the end result is WORSE for it, then I will say something.

I really do want to drill holes in the crankcases or do anything to sabotage these POSs, or find some way to reduce demand so EZ can see the error of their ways and go back to the Robin, and this coming from a guy who absolutely had nothing but CRAP out of the only Subaru vehicle he ever owned.

I have the same opinion of the PowerWise QE mess that EZ also cooked up, as well as the motor brake mess the first generation of RXVs had as well.

I actually LOVE the new Yamaha Drives, with EFI and super smooth quiet motors.

I have nothing against the Kawasaki FE290 and 350, at least they're accessible when you need to service and don't burn through brushes or clutches.

That in mind, we also lost two more starter generators, one was DOA (brushes were completely ate up) and the other failed as we tried loading it onto the trailer, got it back to the shop by tapping it with a hammer. This going on as a church event group was interested in renting 6 for their event. Needless to say it's not helping move these pieces of crap.

Personally I was never and I mean NEVER a fan of the 2-cycle Yamaha G1 car. That thing is all but impossible to find parts for these days, and even when we did rebuild them. Reed valves shot? forget it. Need a stator assembly? good luck! About all you can get new for them are tune up kits or ignition coils, and solenoids. They just stopped supplying us new wiring harnesses. This is a common item that is rigged up by those who try working on their own cart before giving up and hoping we can undo their wiring hell. Especially when they modify the solenoid pair where I can't make head nor tails of it anymore.

Accessories are also impossible to find, Customers want a radio, but there's nowhere to put one, and the roof is single layer and drilling holes asks for water intrusion into a console. Back Seat kits and light kits, especially the OEM LED kits, are popular accessories, but you cannot get them for a G1 (much less G2-G9 more recently) and customers don't like the idea of an old bus seat bolted to the plastic rear. No, they MUST have a 2-in-1 flip seat!

2-strokes are great....on a Honda CR250 or something. For some reason, golf carts don't like high revving on the 2-cycles. Take a Yamaha G1 beyond 15MPH and you're asking for rings in no time. Harley/AMF three wheelers are even worse. You can't even find shift boards--have to fab one up. Everything AMF/Harley did during the merger was garbage--even their motorcycles.

[mikeasis]

"Personally I was never and I mean NEVER a fan of the 2-cycle Yamaha G1 car. That thing is all but impossible to find parts for these days, and even when we did rebuild them. Reed valves shot? forget it. Need a stator assembly? good luck! About all you can get new for them are tune up kits or ignition coils, and solenoids. They just stopped supplying us new wiring harnesses. This is a common item that is rigged up by those who try working on their own cart before giving up and hoping we can undo their wiring hell. Especially when they modify the solenoid pair where I can't make head nor tails of it anymore.

Accessories are also impossible to find, Customers want a radio, but there's nowhere to put one, and the roof is single layer and drilling holes asks for water intrusion into a console. Back Seat kits and light kits, especially the OEM LED kits, are popular accessories, but you cannot get them for a G1 (much less G2-G9 more recently) and customers don't like the idea of an old bus seat bolted to the plastic rear. No, they MUST have a 2-in-1 flip seat!

2-strokes are great....on a Honda CR250 or something. For some reason, golf carts don't like high revving on the 2-cycles. Take a Yamaha G1 beyond 15MPH and you're asking for rings in no time. Harley/AMF three wheelers are even worse. You can't even find shift boards--have to fab one up. Everything AMF/Harley did during the merger was garbage--even their motorcycles."


That old 2 stroke hasn't been in production in years so yea parts are going to be tough to find. I belive there are some rewinding the stators these days.
I think like a lot of carts of the time they weren't designed for some the accessories that are prevalent today. Anyone that has a cart that old probably needs to be maintaining and modifying it themselves. Take a look at what a lot of people on this board have done with their G1's. Adding lights, radios, Tops and Seating that wasn't available for the cart. Im no 2 stroke guy but to me the one 2 stoke golf cart engine that was done right was the G1. I agree the Harley engine just was a very old outdated design. To me I see the same thing for the old ezgo 2 stokes.(Yes Harleys sucked those years)

The g1 stock seems to have a powerband of 4 stoke as odd as that sounds but at the same time it was designed after a snow sled engine and ive seen guys on here remove the governor and other modifications and run the living dog snot out them with no issues well above 15mph. If its eating rings its probably not getting enough lube. The engine is built so simply and yet very durable.

[nickdalzell1]

They eat rings because they've been driven for 30 years at 10MPH and a new guy gets it and decides 20MPH is as slow as he'll go, and finds out the hard way; Story about Grandma's old Chevelle comes to mind, driven to church on Sundays only, only go up to 25MPH, some teen gearhead wannabe gets it after she kicks the big one, and decides 'oh time to floor it and see what happens!'

I understand they're hard to find parts for, for very much the same reason it's all but impossible to find parts for a Yugo these days. I tell customers all the time that's just the way it is, and they get all fired up about planned obsolescence and all that jazz, and if we even find the part they want, they refuse to pay the price! They act as if supply/demand and/or inflation is a myth or something. You can't reason with morons.


G1s and any Two stroke these days are just finnicky. They never run the way folks expect them to no matter what you do, and that's when they run! You can spend months trying to get it back running without any real profit or turnaround so we just stopped letting folks bring in 2-cycles. The last one we ended up having to put over $2500 into it, and that was because the customer refused to pay even the same price for a much better Club Car or even Yamaha G16 we offered for $100 less than that. I will NEVER grasp why anyone would be THAT sentimental over a golf cart!!!!

[trig123]

I worked 16 years for a golf course that had all EZGO 's. I loved the 9 and 11 hp Robbins. Best engine ever made in my opinion if used as intended and not road racing :)
Then sometimes in my 16 year short career we got the RXV instead of the TXT. Said they were better so out purchasing agent said keep the 10 they sent us. Crap :)

Brake pedal would hit the golfers in their legs for no reason. I was told you had to remove the floorboard and keep it clean. Yea right with all the turf stuff I had to work on.
Then here comes the 13 HP Cow wow sockie

I was told that EZGO did a survey from top people all over the world on the best engine out there and this dog won :) bean counters I assume did this survey.

I hung it up at age 65 because I could not see myself working on these after working on the Robbins. Well not the only reason I retired but I will use that one :)

Now at almost 71 I have three TXT's in my personal shop, all with Robbins. . Brings back memories of the good old days.

I am also move with things. I drive a 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport bought new last July. . I build my own desktops and run Windows 10 pro. I am not stuck in the past using what was said the best operating system ever, Windows XP.

My wife has an iPad , I use a smart phone and have since they came out. I am not stuck flipping a phone :) I love all the latest things but not those golf carts after they stopped putting the Robbins in. Not going to happen.

Did I mention I don't like the newer ezgo's with their quite gas engine

[nickdalzell1]

EZGO is a big case of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' being completely ignored, meanwhile, Club Car has been using the same frame, body since the 80's and still sells...

Not sure what EZGO changed in their management but it downright sucks!

But, I'll say one thing for the gas RXV, it's far more reliable than the computer-on-wheels monstrosity they got on their electric side, and yes, while it, too burns through clutches and starter brushes, at least there is access where the oil filter and drain plug (similar design as Club Car's FE290) are in the same place. On the gas TXT 2011+, it's like they designed it to be used on a lift (ironically, the lift kit for some of our later model cars, like the Drive 2, show the car on a lift almost implying that!) or really wanted one to use a Dremel to cut the fan shroud away enough that the oil won't fill up inside and cause a huge mess.

That's how I did the last six thumpers, I actually dremeled some of the shroud back so the oil wouldn't go everywhere.

[4mula1fan]

Y'all must be talking about a different animal than I have. Same starter, same clutch that came on my 08 is still on it.

[nickdalzell1]

We had a thumper RXV in yesterday, and it was a 2008. I noticed it had a different clutch and driven clutch (almost like those on Robin TXTs) and used a different drive belt (#8141 vs. 50466) so perhaps the earlier TXTs with this 'upgrade' engine didn't get the TEAMs until later. I haven't seen a TXT with the thumper except the 2011+ models.

Both though have Advanced starter Generators and they suck. Or at least they don't seem strong enough to handle the compression of the newer engine. Most will get 'stuck' momentarily on the compression cycle if they are in a certain position when you start them, so I think that combined with the TEAM drive clutches tending to freeze up (and some fleets using the wrong starter belt making it uber tight!) is what's killing them.