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A 4 year old ariens Ikon 52 with a 23 hp kawasaki engine. Why do they keep putting the crap kawasaki FR691 engines on them. Less than 600 hours and it's garbage and over $4000 in investment. A joke warranty and no response from the clowns dumping these crap engines on America.

The simple answer is people are cheap. People want quality but then insist on paying the lowest price they can find. So therefore manufacturers will fit the cheapest engine that they can purchase because that is what the consumer ask for. And since the consumer will then replace that mower is 4 years or less in most cases there is no incentive to build to higher standards.

What exactly is wrong with the engine? As for the warranty it is only 36 months so it has already expired as 48 months is 12 months pass that.

StarTech said:

What exactly is wrong with the engine? As for the warranty it is only 36 months so it has already expired as 48 months is 12 months pass that.

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Talking with several mechanic and doing the compression testing, the engine needs rebuilding and in my mind was a dump job by kawasaki. If you did into the history of repairs on this engine it should have come with a minimum 10 year warranty.

Now come on be realistic. I have yet to see lawnmower engine with a 10 yr warranty. Considering this engine used commercially most times three yrs is a long time.

Doing a compression test on these engines is basically useless; unless, the valve train is disabled as the ACR (automatic compression release) will keep the compress low. Now if they do a leak down test then they would know if the cylinder and rings are worn that much

But there is minimun spec. Cylinder Compression (MIN) 440 kPa (64 psi) @ Engine Oil Temperature 50 ∼ 60°C (122 ∼ 140°F), Cranking Speed 450 rpm/5 Seconds. If the compression is higher than the specified value, the piston rings, cylinder and valves are probably in good condition.

Also when was the last time you had the valves adjusted?

StarTech said:

Now come on be realistic. I have yet to see lawnmower engine with a 10 yr warranty. Considering this engine used commercially most times three yrs is a long time.

Doing a compression test on these engines is basically useless; unless, the valve train is disabled as the ACR (automatic compression release) will keep the compress low. Now if they do a leak down test then they would know if the cylinder and rings are worn that much

But there is minimun spec. Cylinder Compression (MIN) 440 kPa (64 psi) @ Engine Oil Temperature 50 ∼ 60°C (122 ∼ 140°F), Cranking Speed 450 rpm/5 Seconds. If the compression is higher than the specified value, the piston rings, cylinder and valves are probably in good condition.

Also when was the last time you had the valves adjusted?

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My 10 year comment was meant to combat the dumping issue and 3 years for a $4000 purchase so in your mind 1300 a year is a fair amount. I think you know engines and wish you lived closer but the rest of your comments make you sound like an employee so no more needs saying.

To continually repeat myself
Dad bought his first petrol powered mower back in 1962
It was the bottom end walk behind, no catcher & cost him 6 weeks wages
My sister has the mower &it is still being used weekly on it's original bore ( I have replaced the rings once or twice ) and apart from that all I have really done with it was to replace the points with an Atom module .
It has lasted this long because it was a quality item

So how long should a ride on mower that costs 4 to 6 weeks wages last ?
Now I have fitted a lot of FR691's and none have given the customers a stick of trouble.
All of these failures was due dust entering the engine via a badly fitted air filter
There was a bad batch of engines a long while ago where the single bolt holding the rocker mount on was not tightened properly that would have been found if the owners did the full initial service or dealers did proper predelivery

dwddoc said:

My 10 year comment was meant to combat the dumping issue and 3 years for a $4000 purchase so in your mind 1300 a year is a fair amount. I think you know engines and wish you lived closer but the rest of your comments make you sound like an employee so no more needs saying.

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First you said 4 years not 3 years. Second I own my repair shop so yes I am both the owner and employee. I know what replacement parts costs are and it is different then the cost of complete units. I have at times brought new walk behind mowers just for the engines and then sell off the other parts later.

So you think the $4000 for a whole mower is just the cost of the engine. There is a lot more to the cost then just an engine involved. Below is my distributor FR691V list price on just one version of the FR691V.



So over half of the $4000 is the rest of the mower. Just wait until you find out what it costs for just one hydrostatic transaxles. They are around $800 list each. Then you throw in the deck housing at around $600 (spindles and other part are extra) and the seat at around $425. And don't even get you complete assembled mower. So the overall price of the mower is a considerable good deal. It is because the OEM gets a huge discount for volume of purchases that they can sell the complete mower for $4000 and make any money on it.

On top of that try pricing what it would cost you to have someone to mow your lawn during the same time frame. There are customers of mine that had to pay $150 each time they got their 3/4 acres mowed while their mower is in the shop awaiting back ordered parts.

I just repaired a JD Z925A last year that sold for over $10,000 and it was $2500 just to replace one transaxle and it took me 8 hours to replace it as it is a royal pain to pull the whole rear assembly just to get to the transaxle mounting bolts. And there have been a lot other repairs done on the mower over the last 4 yrs too. Then his Z950R needed a $600 carburetor just this week. The customer has actually spent about $6000 over the last 5 years maintaining the Z925A mower and he about due to replace the motor as it using a lot oil now.

StarTech said:

I just repaired a JD Z925A last year that sold for over $10,000 and it was $2500 just to replace one transaxle and it took me 8 hours to replace it as it is a royal pain to pull the whole rear assembly just to get to the transaxle mounting bolts. And there have been a lot other repairs done on the mower over the last 4 yrs too. Then his Z950R needed a $600 carburetor just this week. The customer has actually spent about $6000 over the last 5 years maintaining the Z925A mower and he about due to replace the motor as it using a lot oil now.

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Crikey! That's a lot for a carburetor...

AdamE said:

Crikey! That's a lot for a carburetor...

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Exactly why I rebuilt the customer's carburetor even I had to machine a custom bushing for it. It still ran close to $200 in parts but that was still a lot better than $600.