Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com. Today we're gonna swap out
the starter on our 2015 Kawasaki Mule Pro FXT. Turns out in the morning,
she'll crank up just fine. But as the engine gets heated up, it doesn't want
to start after that, and that's caused by that Bendix not engaging with the
flywheel then it doesn't want to start. So there's only one part we're gonna
need, and that's going to be the starter assembly. And if you need that part
number, why don't you check that link in the description below and that's going
to carry you straight to a shopping cart that's ready to go. Now if we're not
working on the exact make and model that you're working on? Just head over to our
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We can be reached at eight seven seven four seven three four five nine five. So
other than that we're just going to need some basic tools and I'll call those out
as we go along. So let's get started.
So it all starts off by just getting the bed to lift back. I've already unlatched
it on the other side. If you're familiar with the Mule, that goes back, really easy
to do, and lifts it up. And where we're heading is right down here. It actually
has a plastic cover on it, so you may have mistaken that for part of the cover
or hose back there, but that's actually the starter. What we're gonna do first,
before we actually put a wrench on it, is go over and disconnect the battery
because the last thing I want to do is make contact on that battery wire and
put on a spark show. So let's run around to the other side, I'm gonna pull
the negative, and then we'll start pulling this thing apart. And this is
just a 10 millimeter. Just loosen it up, should break free. Push it out of the way
to where it can't reconnect to that battery post. All right with that done, we
can get started on the other side. So let's start off by getting all the bolts
for the converter cover out and then get it out of the way. Now they're gonna be
fifteen 10 millimeter bolts that we're going to be after, and you're gonna need a
pretty wide arrangement of extensions as well as a shallow and a deep 10
millimeter to access all of them. I want to forewarn you as an overview, we will end
up pulling the outer cover, the belt, the drive pulley, the driven pulley, and then
the backside of that housing. All of that has to come out of the way before we can
get those two bolts that are actually holding the starter in place. It's fairly
involved, but if you follow along I can save you a lot of money instead of
having to take your unit to the dealership. Probably should have done
this in the beginning, just to give myself a little bit more room to work
I'm gonna go ahead and get these little plastic rivets out of the way, remove
this inner fender, pull this outer cover, so you can more easily see what I'm
doing in there. And then we'll dive back into it.
Alright, next let's go ahead and get our bearing carrier out. There's going to
be three 12 millimeter bolts. Just make sure when you're removing it not to lose
the dowel pins. And we're gonna need to clean that up a little bit before we put
it back together. Next we're going to use an impact to knock it off. Remember this is
a reverse thread. Alright what I'm gonna try now is
just a little bit of gentle prying on the backside. I don't want to push them
too hard, scar up anything or worse yet break it. I mean I barely had to move it.
So we've got our driven pulley loose, let's go ahead and work on the drive and
then we'll just pull them off together. And you'll notice that there's a hole
right at the end of the shaft about a quarter-inch and what we're gonna use is
just a regular slide hammer that I've adapted a little bit. What I've done is
use one of the the pullers and I just welded on a stainless steel bolt to the
end of it. Now what you could do is head to your hardware store get a 5/8 by 18
pitch thread bolt, do the same thing. So you'd have the nut on the end and then
you'd have the bolt welded to it. I'm just gonna attach that to the end of our
puller, slide it in that hole, and pop it out. You shouldn't have to pop it hard
and when you don't want to pop this all right if you actually dump it out onto
the floor. It's all it takes. Now Kawasaki of course makes a special tool to do
that, but you know, a couple of bucks the hardware store it a little bit of
welding you're good to go, because all we were really fighting is just the splines
and an o-ring in there. That's the only thing that was actually holding it in
place. Now we can go ahead and lift out the drive clutch and get that belt off of there.
When you pull your belt, make note of which way it was on there. So Kawasaki is facing me, that's
the way we want it to go back on. These are in really good shape. Let's remove
the air duct next and you're gonna need a six millimeter socket to do it.
Next let's go after these two Phillips screws. Now there's just one zip tie at
the bottom of the duct work that we need to cut because it's holding onto part of
the wiring harness. Alright there's no need to remove the duct, we just need to
get it up and out of the way. This should be far enough. Let's start
working on our cover bolts, and they're gonna be 12 millimeters, and keep in mind
you've got a couple that are hidden back behind this cover. These five, one over
here to the side that's up front. One more I need to get to at the top of the
housing. But the two that are gonna be more difficult to access are on the bottom,
so to access those, have to drop the skid plate. Told you this was gonna be fun. Now this
should be the last one. This is 17 millimeters all the way up top, and
that's an oil passage back there. There we go, that should have it now. Alright
guys, it is separated and pulled away from the actual plate where the starter
is mounted and that's what we're after. Now if you were going to remove it all
the way, you would have to remove the exhaust system as well as the thermostat
housing along with the the piping. I didn't to have to drain the fluid out of
this thing. So it's back far enough now to where I can get to those final two
bolts that are actually holding the starter in place. All right, what we're
going after next are the electrical connections, and down below the intake
you're gonna find a 13 millimeter bolt here which is your battery cable, and
then the trigger is an 8 millimeter right here. Now all this is right below
the intake, so we're gonna reach in from the back with a deep well eight
millimeter. There she goes.
Next we're going to use a deep well 13 to go after the battery cable. Now if you haven't
disconnected your battery, definitely want to do it now. Otherwise you're gonna
have a firework show. Now you just need to pull the wires off the post. Get those
two 10 millimeters that are going through the plate and going into the
starter. Go to the back, get the cover off. And it is
sealed into it.
There you go. Now wasn't that easy? Now it's just a matter of getting everything
cleaned back up, get the new one, get it sealed, start putting it back
together. Basically all these different mated surfaces, even going on the other
side of the the starter itself, they all have to be sealed up. Now I'm actually
using the three bond that's recommended by Kawasaki. We'll begin with the starter,
you can get away with using like a Hondabond HT, which is for high temp,
or you can go with like, Yamabond, or even the Permatex gray. Biggest
differenc is mine's black, yours is not. But it is important that you get all of
these different surfaces sealed back up because we don't want water getting into
this area where the flywheel is. So, follow along, let's get it sealed back up
without making too much of a mess. If there's grease or oil anywhere in there
where it will not allow it to seal up, you're gonna have a problem there. Next,
let's put on what they call a dampening cover, because it will be tough to do
unless we actually get it in position. And it basically just snaps over it for
the most part. Looks like it's ready to go. Now we're just going to guide it up in
there and you want to make sure that you've still got the two dowels that are
in that plate in there. Right now they're just kind of hanging in place and we go
to push it in we may need to push from the other side making sure that they go
into the dowel slots on the starter itself. So I've got the starter sitting
in place, but to get it to line up i need to go ahead and put the mounting bolts
through, and you want to go and get some Loctite on there. And once I get them set
in place, we're gonna get a torque wrench and put them to 18 foot pounds.
Next let's focus on getting the wiring back on. We're going to do the
trigger lead first, which was a eight millimeter. And now we can go for
the battery wire and it's a thirteen millimeter nut this is going to go on
there. Get that rubber cover back over the end of it.
Well, the starter is on but now we are far, far away from being finished. What
I'm doing here is just using the bungee cord so I can hold this in one place
because what we're gonna do is use some contact cleaner, go around the surfaces,
get them cleaned up, make sure there's no dirt on them. Then I'm gonna apply that
three bond to it. At that point we can release it. I recommend gloves for
doing this and just do it in small sections, because once you start you've
got about twenty minutes to get it assembled before it starts to set up. We'll
go into that area around the secondary driven clutch, and then you've got a
larger section that actually goes up to the plate. So let's release it carefully.
We're gonna lift it up, and get it in place. So we're going to start back at the back on
the where you'd have the driven clutch. So all these bolts that we're about to
install, all the M-8 thread bolts, they all take 15 foot-pounds. And there are
various lengths, we're going to show you a diagram where they go back. Next let's go
for this larger one, which right up at the top. And that one's going to go to 70
foot-pounds. So with that one torqued down, that completes getting the back
half of the casing put back together. Now let's go and get our ductwork
reconnected. So I've got the boot on, I've got the clamp in place. Make sure the
boot's all the way up in this section because it will try to flip on the
inside. Now don't forget these two Phillips that actually hold that
ductwork in place.
The other one goes right here. Last piece of duct work. When you put this one on, it
actually has a a notch that lines up with this casting. That'll tell you I'll
show you which direction it needs to be put on. So before we slide the clutches
back in place, let's go ahead and add in some new grease the splined area on the
actual engine coupling. And then a little bit more to the input shaft of the
transmission. Then we can get our clutches back on. What we're gonna
do here is open up the sheaves on the driven clutch. We're gonna go and put the
belt on it, and then slide it up into the case. Your belt is going the same way it
came off. Looks like it needs to be going left to right. At that point we can go
ahead and take the the drive clutch, get the belt around it and then push it into
position. Remember there's no bolting it in at this point, but you have to
push a little bit hard to get it past the o-ring. Let's go ahead and at least
get our driven clutch bolts in there temporarily, and then we'll get it
torqued later. Now you can release the sheave. Next let's clean up our cage just
a little bit, put some new grease, and we can go in and get this in place. You
don't have to, but I'd recommend putting just a little bit of Loctite on these
three. You can go with the blue. I'm going to put eighteen foot pounds on each one
of those. Now that we've got the carrier in place, let's go back and tighten down
our driven clutch bolts, and remember it's gonna be reversed thread. And of
course, they make a special tool to do this but all you really need to do is
just put in a couple of M8 bolts and then hold it with any type of bar. Just
make sure you're going across both points. Now we're going to set our torque
to 69 foot-pounds. And that'll do it.
Alright now let's get that cover back on. Before you put the outer cover on,
make sure that the seal is still in good shape. This one looks to be okay. So let's
wiggle it in there and get this thing finished up. Now the cover is held in
place about 15 of these bolts. What I usually try to do is get three of these
in a triangle to start with, that more-or-less centers the cover makes it
easier to get the rest of them on. Before we get too much further along,
let's go ahead and plug in this temperature sensor, get it routed, and
then fold this little hold down over it. Well alright guys, that wraps us one up.
We're down to just some plastic, a few screws, rivets, and then of course the
skid plate that goes on to the bottom. And then close up the bed and go take it
for a spin. Well listen, if you need any parts for your machine, why don't you come see
us at Partzilla.com and we can get you taken care of. Have any questions or
comments? Why don't you leave in the section below and I'll do my best to answer them. hey
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Have a great day.