Kawasaki Cam Gear Failure

[Spurgeon]

Any of you been had by John Deere and the 22 hp Kawasaki liquid cooled fuel injected motor relative to the plastic cam gear? Mine went out with 292 hours. This has been and is a problem with this engine and John Deere wants to sweep it under the rug. I am trying to campaign for any consumers that have had this problem and JD would not correct at their expense.

[sdwally]

I would contact Deere direct, it sounds as if the dealer is trying to sweep it under the rug. We had an engine with about 50 hours loose major power. The number 1 engine cylinder had a manufacturing flaw. A new engine was installed, tested, and torn back down to find that the replacement engine had the same flaw. Within a week they had a third engine shipped directly from the engine manufacture and installed and returned to us. Also for the extended down time a loaner machine was given to us, identical to what we had. We also have submitted some minor design changes or problems and they have always responded positively to us. My experience with Deere tells me its the dealer and not the company. I'm not sure of corparate phone numbers, but you should be able to find out at www.deere.com.

[Grateful11]

They've been beating this around for sometime over at the Yahoo Clubs for Garden tractors. It seems Deere doesn't want to take any responibility for this problem. I think it should be taken to Kawasaki and see what they have to say.

[Richard Martin]

To add a little to what Grateful11 said if you look through your warranty you might find a disclaimer about engines. Engines are usually warranted by the engine manufacturer and not the mower manufacturer. If yout local Deere dealer will not correct this issue under warranty it may be because while they are a Deere dealer they are not a authorized Kawasaki service center and cannot send in warranty claims.

[Dave]

I agree with Richard ,you can sell a product but if you are not a authorized dealer for the engine you are out of luck,I have heard this from a scag dist that I do business with,all the manufactures and dist.care about is numbers numbers and numbers,dollars and dollars and dollars,just like anything else in this day and age money talks ,isn't what you know its how much you want to spend,I had a 345 jd 18 hp water cooled kawi 1500 hours ,plastic cam broke in half,and yes you can sell deere and not be authorized kawi,as you can sell scag and not be authorized briggs ,as you can sell toro and not be authorized onan,and on an on.