It'a actually past slippage. It's about to the point of useless. I've got a 2003 Arctic Cat 400 Manual. I'm wondering if adjusting the clutch plates is maybe what I need to do. If somebody could let me know how to adjust it, that would be awesome. I'll probably have to put the new clutch plates in it, but wanted to try adjusting it first.

I run the 28" Mudzillas on it. Could the bigger tires cause the clutch plates to burn out so quick like this?

 

Yes, adjusting might have helped, but probably not at this point. Get a service manual on e-bay or from your dealer or on-line. It is an absoulute for sure that the 28"s caused your clutch to die. 28s are way to much tire diameter for a 400 unless you plan on spending your life in low range.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought. This is my first fourwheeler and the tires were on it when I bought it 3 weeks ago. I used to wheel jeeps, and I figured the same idea transferred over to ATV's. Big tires = broken stuff. The tires do look sweet on there though.

Thanks again for writing back. I tried to adjust it, and it really didn't make much difference.

 

Wider tires don't hurt, but larger diameter change the final gear ratio and is hard on things. The clutch adjustment is under a cover on the the side of the engine.

 

Yeah, I got the adjustment figured out. But upon inspection of the oil that I drained out of it, it was full of shavings. That oil was put in it the day I bought it. So, I'm guessing this was an issue well before I bought it. The tires were put on it a year ago, and I bought this thing 3 weeks ago. Wanna buy some 28" mudzillas? They dig through the mud like nobodies business :-) Actually, I'm gonna try to find a set of stock tires for it, and keep the mudzillas for special occassions, because they are a lot of fun.

Just popped the cover off now and am pulling the clutch plates out. Hopefully the AC dealer here has them in stock, because I'm a very impatient person when it comes to waiting for the parts truck to show up. I need things working right now so I can hit the trails.

 

Ok, before I even type this (since I know how it'll read), I just want to say that I am very mechanically inclined :-) I just have never dug into an atv before and I'm lost looking at some of this stuff. The stuff I work on is usually alchy injected and blown. And, I did look for a repair manual before posting this, on ebay, but didn't find anything. I'll see if the AC dealer has one tomorrow. But until then, I've got another question about this.

I took the cover off the motor, on the right side. The first thing I saw was chipped, burnt, fried, worn, and looked like it was rode real hard for a long time. But, I don't know what I was looking at. If you're standing on the right side of the fourwheeler looking at the motor, it was the front-most "drum" looking object. In fact, it almost looks like the same type of thing as an older brake drum, with 5 little "shoe" types of things in it, on springs. All five of those were worn very badly, and the inside of the drum is too.

My question = What is this, and what does it do? Could this be what is causing the problems I'm having?

 

Go to this following site for a parts breakdown.

http://www.alpha-sports.com/arctic_cat_atv_parts.htm

 

Thanks a ton for that. I didn't find the parts that I'm referring to in there, but I found everything around them. I see they have a service manual there, so I'll probably just order that if the AC dealer doesn't have on in stock tomorrow.

I have a number stamped on one of these parts that I took out, but it didn't show up as a valid part number on that site. The number is G34.

 

It is probably a casting number. Part numbers are four digits, a dash and three digits. Like XXXX-XXX.

 

Oh ok. I wish I could figure out what these parts are. I looked through that whole site again and it's just not in there. Gonna be a long night waiting for the dealer to open.