I have a 03 LTZ400. A couple of weeks ago, I was riding in the trails by my house and everytime I shifted into second gear, it starts to make a popping noise. The faster I go, the faster the noise gets and the slower i go, the slower the noise gets. It kinda sounds like when a kid puts a playing card in the spokes on his bicycle. I can put it in any other gear and it won't do it. If I'm in second gear and I pull in the clutch, it stops. Its pretty loud when I deaccelerate in second.

What could wrong with my bike? Hoping it's not going to be too expensive because I was getting ready to buy the Athena 434 kit.

 

Anyone have an idea what could be the problem? Anyone?

 

I had a similar problem with my 03 Z about 6 weeks ago. That is actually what pushed me to rebuild the entire motor. I too went the athena 434 with stage II cams then kept going and going. I just did all this about 3 weeks ago so if you need help or suggestions let me know.

What would happen is that once I'd get into 3rd gear the entire quad would shake really bad to the point I though I had a badly bent rim/axel. The problem turned out to be that I had lost a few teeth on the 3rd gear in the tranny. Those broken teeth caused some other damage as well so don't ride it because you'll only cause more damage. I had to have the cases split to repair the gears. The parts alone were around $145 + labor.

Good luck.

 

Damn, I was hoping that i wasn't going to hear that. Now i got to spend more $$$$. I ll just wait to fix it when i get the Athena kit installed. I just wont ride it till then. Ill ride the banshee for now.

How much was labor to split the case?

 

My sponsor/motor builder the everything for $1500. This included fixing my tranny problem, athena system, DRZ gaskets, stage II hotcams, port/polish/matched, dynatec ign system, rebuilding my stock carb and the 41 mil FCR(still not working right), and dialing it all in till 11:30pm the night before a race.

 

i had a similar sounding problem on my 96' scrambler. It eventually blew and cost 3k to fix. I cannot stress it enough.. DO NOT RIDE ON IT!! just take it to ur dealer. Save your self the trouble. Because if it brakes when u ride.. i can assure you that your goin to be alone and the damage will be 5x worse than if you got it fixed

 

btw its the gear box. My chain inside the gearbox blew a hole through steel and ruined alll the gears. TAKE IT TO A DEALER man.. its goin to cost u 1,500$ to fix maybe. But its goin to cost you 3000$ like me if u ride it and **** it up!! i would just hate to see the same problem happen to someone else that happened to me. And it happed rite around this time of season too.

 

I have to agree with the other's. Broken teeth. DON'T RIDE IT UNTIL YOU CHECK IT OUT. Could only get more costly if that's the case.