[Yantarni Alaska]

Have two 4010 gas mules at an extremely remote location in Alaska. 125 hours on each, tons of new spare parts and manual at hand, am super conscious of need to use clean fuel and store them with fuel stabilizer. Am running them on 100 Low Lead Aviation fuel which might be a problem, but since putting these UTV's in service it has been one sensor or throttle body failure after another. We put them away in the fall in good working order and return the following summer to have one or both of them not running and the DFI light on. Dealer flew a mechanic out year one and he swapped parts between them until one ran. Used that example for previous three years and now I am spending scores of frustrating hours and thousands of $ to buy EFI brains and waiting to swap those parts when they arrive, and it will be chance if they work. Story being told: Need a diagnostic tool to plug in and identify problem. Dealer 500 miles, two mountain ranges and two bush airplane flights away. Kawasaki will not sell us their diagnostic tool ("dealer only, $10k investment") Has anyone used an aftermarket diagnostic tool with definite effect and can they tell me which tool to buy? Thanks for help, Dan from Yantarni Salmon Camp.

 

[handy334]

electronic diagnostic tool to troubleshoot 2009/10 4010 gas mule where can i buy one at ?

 

[Kawasakian]

I would guarantee that is a dealer only item. I also bet a service manual would get you to the problem you have.. If you have a service manual, post the problem, and what the manual reads. I'm a licensed electronic technician and fix to component level. I have never needed any special tool, but I do have circuit leak detectors, an on board (soldered in) capacitor checking meter, that puts an ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance, capacitors act like resistors in an AC circuit, by putting a high frequency across them you see if they are holding the capacitance properly, or are leaking) and an O'Scope. Usually the service manual tells you to check for voltages at certain places, and if they aren't there, or don't read the value they should, then the component is bad. I have never needed a dedicated tool, and I fix down to component level. Why check a black box that they won't sell you the components to in any event. You just need to know if it is working or not.

 

[handy334]

thank you

 

[WFO-KZ]

I agree with Kawasakian, but there are other generic, diagnostic tools that you may need like a multimeter, compression tester, leakdown tester, spark tester, vacuum gages etc. These tools will work on most any engine and which tool you need depends on what you need to do.

 

[Kawasakian]

These tools will help you with all your engine needs.

 

[Kawasakian]

I will say that running Avgas (Low Lead) in vehicles that aren't designed to run on leaded gas with lead leaving a coating on all the sensors could lead to havoc. When I used to do aircraft annuals, the spark plugs at that time were $125 dollars each. With 2 per cylinder, you cleaned out the old plugs, made sure you did not drop them, a dropped spark plug is a dead one, as there is no way to tell if the ceramic has cracked, and you do not want to find that out in the air. Sometimes you had to take a very sharp rod, to get the built up lead out of the inside of the spark plug. It's amazing how much it builds up. Any surface exposed to Avgas will be coated with a lead coating. I don't know if that would make one of these not start. I just tend to look for the simple stuff first before going out to the expensive stuff.

Not putting down the brand, I would go for a vehicle that is manufactured for harsh weather, and remote conditions like yours. I don't think these vehicles are up to the job. Spending that much money, worse yet, being caught out in the middle of nowhere with a vehicle that doesn't run, or has been so problematic, I'd be ready after one season to start checking out what other people are using, and not having problems with. I would not run Avgas in a newly designed vehicle. The sensor coatings can be so easily contaminated, i.e. Oxygen Sensors, who knows what the computer is reading. Knowing where to check the voltages on the black boxes, the input and output is really all you can do. You can't open these boxes up and fix them. Usually the part numbers aren't on them, you won't be able to get the schematics to fix to component level. You'll just keep swapping out brains till something works, without really knowing what the real underlying issue was. Corrosion can be insidious, and any vehicle sitting is subject to electrolysis, the dissimilar metals, even between types of copper, can cause bad grounds, and that is the bain of many machines that get laid up. I've worked on many British cars, any connection I take apart (electronic) gets a large amount of dielectric grease in it to seal it from the enviroment. My 2 cents worth.

 

[WFO-KZ]

This thread has been edited to remove content that was not in conformance with Kawasakimotorcycle.org site rules.