Hi everyone, I’ve not had to deal with faulty coils much during my time on the planet. However, this one is biting me in the a**. It’s failing, and there is no replacement available. Can coils be rebuilt? Can I possibly use a different coil, instead of an OEM equivalent?
Of the 2, small-engine parts places I’ve contacted, they both say NLA (no longer available) on their parts list, and neither offer a replacement. I contacted both of them, and the one that replied said –basically-, “Sorry bro; glad I’m not you”. That’s also what the local parts (brick-and-mortar) shop said, too.
So, how can I celebrate being “me” again. Well, that’s not really a fair question. Instead… do I have any luck getting a replacement coil?
~1987 John Deere 130, with Kawi FC290V-BS00 engine (211212058 COIL IGNITION)
Thank you, Joey P. I had seen that part; it raises another question, actually.
If the small-engine parts warehouses can’t get it, how’s this guy on Amazon able to procure it? I expect it’s a *generic *knock-off, or something, and I don’t know that I should trust it. I would (perhaps naively) expect the parts warehouses to offer something like this if it would work.
I’m sure it’s generic. So maybe they don’t work with a distributor that handles it. Or, it’s for a lawnmower that’s over 30 years old and they can’t stock everything. There’s very likely another suitable aftermarket one that would work, it might even have the same bracket, but the people you talked to didn’t think to look it up or didn’t know how to find the correct one based on the specs from the original one.
Something you can try is having them look up the same part, but in a newer model (ie 1990 instead of 1987). You might get lucky.
My guess is that it’s generic, because Kawasaki has moved on to making other replacement parts some 32 years later because they sell so few of them these days. I mean, you may be able to scrounge up an OEM one on eBay or somewhere like that, but I’d bet that the vast majority of your options are going to be aftermarket/refurbished ones.
Note that this is sold on Amazon by 5 different sellers, none of them Amazon itself.
Looking for it at one or two shops is not likely to be successful. But places like Amazon and eBay make it easy for a lot of businesses to list the part making the chances of a hit far greater.
I checked one of the sellers, Jacks Small Engines, and didn’t see right away where their physical address is. There not be an actual brick-and-mortar store. Amazon says they list over 10,000 items with them. Wow. Imagine the effort to list all those, even if using pre-existing product descriptions there’s still pricing, stock tracking, etc.
I am going to guess that John Deere prohibits distributors who sell John Deere parts from selling aftermarket replacement parts. That is, if it isn’t a John Deere part, they can’t sell it for a John Deere application.
IME, most John Deere parts (I have a 2015 D140) are designed so that only John Deere parts will fit. Where generic pulleys might have a hub ID of 1/2", the Deere part will have an ID of 9/16", making the pulley you can get at Tractor Supply useless. Their blades have a unique star-shaped hole to attach to the spindle. Everybody else can make a round hole work, but not Deere.
Again, a guess, but I suspect that the Amazon coil will work just fine, but you might have to adjust the wire connections and/or mounting holes to get it to work.
I’ve bought things from Jack’s Small Engines, so while they may not have a store you can go to, they do have stuff and seem to have a good knowledge of how it all works.
Thanks for all the replies, everyone. Your info puts my mind at ease about the coil, even if it begins to question the goodness of John Deere
Jack’s Small Engine was the online retailer who replied to my queries; I’ll remember their kindness when it’s time for future purchases. For the coil, I’m going to grab that one from Amazon, and I’ll let you know what happens.
Update: I bought one of those coils off Amazon. It looked (practically) identical, and fit like the original. But it didn’t work. No spark; nada. I put my old, worn coil back on there, and I was getting spark. Amazon accepted my return, so I contacted JDParts (thank you, Caldris) to get one of their *bona-fide *replacements. I installed it over the weekend and… nada. So I re-installed the old, worn coil, and mowed the lawn.
I was testing/confirming these coils by installing them, and watching the spark plug while I turned the key to turn the starter. You can see this in action at this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/x7WgmDXjkpbDSMbMA
I’m quite confused. Why would neither new coil work for me? I must be doing something wrong, but I sure can’t figure out what it might be. Any info/explanation would be much appreciated.
