I have a 1996 Woods Mow'n Machine that came equipped the 20 hp. twin cylinder water cooled FD620D. It's blessed with composite camshaft gear that fails between 700 and 1000 hours of runtime. Kawasaki has 5 revision levels of the S03 FD620D --
AS03 & BSO3 -- plastic cam gear (I believe 1996 and 1997 production run)
CS03 -- steel cam gear changeover to prevent premature cam gear failure
DS03 -- steel cam gear
ES03 -- steel cam gear
The AS03 and BS03 were manufactured with the John Deere mandated composite or plastic gear. Unfortunately, the WOODS Mower company bought the same motors with plastic cam gear (although they did not know it). Since they could not answer my question regarding the plastic gear in the mower they sold me I assume they were simply ignorant. This vintage of Woods mowers were made by Grasshopper. Neither Woods or Grasshopper could answer my question regarding whether or the Kawasaki FD620D that was installed in mine had the plastic cam gear. I also called Kawasaki support and they were clueless as well. One rep said he thought they were only building plastic cam gear motors for John Deere. He said, don't worry about it. If it does have plastic cam gear he suggested fixing it when it failed. Gotta love first tier tech support. I pulled the muffler and the water pump to expose the cam gear. It is plastic.
John Deere 425 and 445 plastic cam gear inevitable failure and replacement has created a cottage industry on ebay selling Kawasaki part kits. No ebay retailer posts the actual part numbers for fear of someone else setting up a a competitive camshaft replacement kit. One ebay reseller did check the parts lookup and he said half would work on my version of the engine (BS03) and the other parts would not. My problem is with 5 revision levels of the FD620D S03 series (i.e., A, B, C, D & E) not all parts interchange. Trying to find the parts on line has been impossible. ereplacement parts has some, RepairClinic has some, Kawasaki OEM Parts store has some, but not all parts are sold by any of them. John Deere has Kawasaki engine parts that might work but I lack the decoder ring or cross reference of John Deere part numbers to Kawasaki part numbers.
[B]I WANT TO ORDER PARTS BUT WHERE TO BUY THEM IS THI have a 1996 Woods Mow'n Machine that came equipped the 20 hp. twin cylinder water cooled FD620D. It's blessed with composite camshaft gear that fails between 700 and 1000 hours of runtime. Kawasaki has 5 revision levels of the S03 FD620D --
AS03 & BSO3 -- plastic cam gear (I believe 1996 and 1997 production run)
CS03 -- steel cam gear changeover to prevent premature cam gear failure
DS03 -- steel cam gear
ES03 -- steel cam gear
The AS03 and BS03 were manufactured with the John Deere mandated composite or plastic gear. Unfortunately, the WOODS Mower company bought the same motors not because they are not deep enough in engineering to specify a more durable steel cam gear. This vintage of Woods mowers were made by Grasshopper. Neither Woods or Grasshopper could answer my question regarding whether or the Kawasaki FD620D that was installed in mine had the plastic cam gear. I also called Kawasaki support and they were clueless as well. One rep said he thought they were only building plastic cam gear motors for John Deere. He said, don't worry about it. If it does have plastic cam gear he suggested fixing it when it failed. Gotta love first tier tech support.
John Deere 425 and 445 plastic cam gear inevitable failure and replacement has created a cottage industry on ebay selling Kawasaki part kits. My problem is with 5 revision levels of the FD620D S03 series (i.e., A, B, C, D & E) not all parts interchange. Trying to find the parts on line has been impossible. ereplacement parts has some, RepairClinic has some, Kawasaki OEM Parts store has some, but not all parts are sold by any of them. John Deere has Kawasaki engine parts that might work but I lack the decoder ring or cross reference of John Deere part numbers to Kawasaki part numbers.
THE PROBLEM
Bottom line. I am stuck. Does anybody have any suggestions for finding OEM Kawasaki for all the parts involved with replacing the camshaft, replacing the valve springs, push rods, governor, etc. I am lost. I want to tear down the engine and freshen the motor with a valve job and maybe a set of rings. Any suggestions as to where to find OEM Kawasaki part?a set of rings. Any suggestions as to where to find OEM Kawasaki parts?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Bill