Mule not starting

[mildoc]

I’m having issues with the Mule starting. It was fine when parked about two weeks ago. I tried jumping it off and I figured it was the starter (guy it was bought from said it needed a new starter). Ordered a starter and installed it. I connected another battery direct to the starter and it spins but nothing more on starting. What other issues could this be?

 

[rtk]

Do you have spark ? Fuel? mag switch on ? kinda hard to diagnosis from here , G503 site has a pretty good Mule information section . and before somebody else says it down load the the TM's . keep us posted , it should not be anything to serious , were you having issues before ?

 

[mildoc]

No issues before. It sat for about two weeks and I thought initially battery, jumping did help. Then I remember the previous owner said it needed a new starter, so I tried that. I’ll try roll starting when I get some help and see if it starts isolating that.

 

[bigmike]

Does it crank over?

 

[rtk]

Let me ask this . is the starter not engaging the flywheel ?? if so sounds like a bad starter , or wrong starter . How are you jumping the starter ? did you jump it at the starter solenoid ??? could also be a bad flywheel ring gear . That could be a bigger issue .

 

[mildoc]

I’ve removed the starter and tested it with battery cables direct to it. It did spin. Ok how would I know if it’s a bad flywheel ring gear?
Tomorrow I will try a few more troubleshooting steps and measurements to see if the new starter should connect with the flywheel.

 

[rtk]

Look in the starter hole with a light and you should be able to see if the ring gear is good or if the teeth are damaged in anyway . For the starter to not engage it would have to have some major damage , missing ring gear teeth . You should be able to push start it , but that gets old after a while . Just make sure you have the correct starter , did you get it from John Emery ?

 

[mildoc]

I got the starter from Mechanical Mules. The teeth looked good and I did move it in gear to make sure I saw those rotating. I’m now questioning if it’s as simple as the ignition switch has corrosion on it.

 

[bigmike]

A bad ground.

 

[M813rc]

Once you get your ignition worked out, good fuel helps a lot!

My mule was always a cranky starter, I was using regular unleaded with additives and stabilizer.
I ran it sometimes on ethanol free aviation fuel, on which it started better, but ran rather hot.
Recently, I'm able to get ethanol-free fuel at several filling stations locally, so now use that exclusively in the Mule. It made a huge difference in ease of starting and how it runs. The Mule seems very happy with the change.

Back when I drove Mules in the Marines, our start procedure was -
Full choke
Ignition switch off
Four pulls on the starter rope
Ignition switch on
1/4" to 1/2" of choke (depending on the likes of the particular Mule)
Pull the starter rope and it fires right up

My personal Mule has electric start. Following the same procedure, but substituting a quick 1-2-3-4 count while pushing the starter button instead of the rope pulls with the ignition switch off, achieves the same results.
Mine likes 1/4" of choke.

Cheers

 

[mulman7]

Did you get your mule to start and run?