Kawasaki mule idles too fast and gears grind when shifting

[greybeard]

My nephew gave my older sister a Mule and the thing seems to idle too fast. Gears grind like crazy when shifting out of neutral.
She has to hold foot on the brake and start it in the fwd or rev gear she wants to travel in. Otherwise, it's a matter of time before she tears something up in the transmission forcing it into gear.
Any easy fix for this? I have owners/operators manual but no repair manual. I didn't see any idle adjustment screw on the carb.
It only has 300 hrs on it, and seems to be in good shape otherwise.

 

[dun]

If it's possible, run some carb cleaner through it or run it at high speeds for 10 minutes or so. When I've had those issues that has always solved the problem.

 

[Nesikep]

check your throttle cables that they move freely and have slack when you aren't on the gas. I'm not very familiar with them, are they fuel injected? IF it's injected, check the engine temp signal, it might be thinking it's cold and fast idling it,.. if it's a carb, there'd gotta be an idle adjustment somewhere!

As for the gears grinding, on my bike I found that too heavy a crankcase oil on a wet clutch will make it drag, again, there's cables and stuff that may need adjustment too. Bike seems to do much better with 10W30 than 15W40 for the clutch. It was at the point you couldn't get it into neutral unless you were rolling, and it's still a bit finnicky now, but better.

If it really only has 300 hours, I can't imagine much wrong inside, but one cause on OLDER machines is that the clutch basket gets grooves worn into it from the discs, and it causes them not to want to separate... (on a multi disc wet clutch at least)

 

[dun]

check your throttle cables that they move freely and have slack when you aren't on the gas. I'm not very familiar with them, are they fuel injected? IF it's injected, check the engine temp signal, it might be thinking it's cold and fast idling it,.. if it's a carb, there'd gotta be an idle adjustment somewhere!

As for the gears grinding, on my bike I found that too heavy a crankcase oil on a wet clutch will make it drag, again, there's cables and stuff that may need adjustment too. Bike seems to do much better with 10W30 than 15W40 for the clutch. It was at the point you couldn't get it into neutral unless you were rolling, and it's still a bit finnicky now, but better.

If it really only has 300 hours, I can't imagine much wrong inside, but one cause on OLDER machines is that the clutch basket gets grooves worn into it from the discs, and it causes them not to want to separate... (on a multi disc wet clutch at least)

The resason it grinds when putting it in gear is because of the fast idle speed and no clutch.

 

[skyhightree1]

GB i do not have that problem but I have a ranger and every time I fill up im using seafoam and it seems to be good on keeping it running well. I put seafoam in everything atleast once a month. and I agree with dun previous statement about gear grinding I have a old tractor that grinds when idle is too high.

 

[John SD]

I have no idea if this applies to your Mule, but my 2 stroke Polaris atv would do the same thing.

The soft rubber "intake manifold" between the air filter and carburetor cracked and let in outside air. Same effect as having too much throttle.

The crack was obvious after I removed enough stuff so I could see it directly.

I would bet there is some kind of similar outside air leak on the intake side causing your Mule to idle too fast. Perhaps a vaccuum hose has come off if it has any.

When the engine is relatively cool, start it up, take some WD40 and spray around the area between air filter and carb/EFI. If the WD fogs your engine, there is your leak.

 

[lavacarancher]

My Mule is carburated and there are idle mixture screws as well as a throttle stop adjustment.

I finally found someone who knew what the heck he was doing and he fixed mine. Drilled out a couple of passages in the carb and now it purrs when idling and no gear grinding. Three dealerships could/would not fix the problem and each charged me $1200 - $1500 and still did not fix the issue.

 

[dcarp]

Three dealerships could/would not fix the problem and each charged me $1200 - $1500 and still did not fix the issue.

If one of those was Elk in LaGrange, I understand. They couldn't fix an open window and they'd charge you a fortune and still leave it open. :2cents:

 

[greybeard]

My Mule is carburated and there are idle mixture screws as well as a throttle stop adjustment.

I finally found someone who knew what the heck he was doing and he fixed mine. Drilled out a couple of passages in the carb and now it purrs when idling and no gear grinding. Three dealerships could/would not fix the problem and each charged me $1200 - $1500 and still did not fix the issue.

After searching the internet, it seems to be a common problem. The "drilling out" you refer to is drilling out two factory installed plugs in the carburetor so the adjustment screws can be accessed. There is also a procedure that is done to make sure the throttle cables are adjusted correctly, but I'll have to get a repair manual to do this. It's a 1-2 thing--check and adjust the cables first, and if that doesn't help, drill out the plugs.
From what I have read, most dealerships will not drill out the plugs and change the idle--they claim it causes starting problems and stalling when the accelerator is released. Looks like this is not going to be an easy fix unless it is just the throttle cable adjustment.

http://www.rfive.me/info/mule-i2.html

 

[dun]

After searching the internet, it seems to be a common problem. The "drilling out" you refer to is drilling out two factory installed plugs in the carburetor so the adjustment screws can be accessed. There is also a procedure that is done to make sure the throttle cables are adjusted correctly, but I'll have to get a repair manual to do this. It's a 1-2 thing--check and adjust the cables first, and if that doesn't help, drill out the plugs.
From what I have read, most dealerships will not drill out the plugs and change the idle--they claim it causes starting problems and stalling when the accelerator is released. Looks like this is not going to be an easy fix unless it is just the throttle cable adjustment.

http://www.rfive.me/info/mule-i2.html

Yes it's common but to fix it they have to violate the epa clean air standards, that's why thsoe things are blocked off. I told on here how to fix that 4-5 years ago. With the older mules it was a problem of hard starting and trying to keep it running.

 

[lavacarancher]

Three dealerships could/would not fix the problem and each charged me $1200 - $1500 and still did not fix the issue.

If one of those was Elk in LaGrange, I understand. They couldn't fix an open window and they'd charge you a fortune and still leave it open. :2cents:

Nope, it was AJ Foyt Kawasaki in Houston (where I bought the thing), Dales Fun Center in Victoria and Boehm Tractor in Shiner.

 

[Brute 23]

Need to separate the cable from the throttle and see if its idled up because the cable is pulling. If that is the case its real easy to trace the cables to the rod and adjust it.

 

[BobbyLummus]

Get it to idle down and that will solve the shifting/grinding issue