back again with a new prob. me and some buds went out to slick rock (a cool rideing spot back home) its a creek with a clay bottom and about 1" of water running over it. you can get out there and cut doughnuts so fast you can hardly stay on the bike. my bike wouldn't hardly do this in high range. my bud has a 400 that literally through me off the back. my power in high range is gone. also when i put it in high its like its loading up then catches. is this the belt & clutch or possably a tranny problem?

 

Could be the size of your tires (27") and maybe they are hooking up too good...

If you run it on a dirt road can you get it over 50mph? If not then I would start some sort of trouble shooting process, starting with cleaning air filters, changing spark plugs etc... Do the simple free and least expensive things first... sooner or later the problem will start to point toward an area as a result of 'process of elimination'....

 

The basic principles for power are:
1) correct air/fuel mixture
2) good spark
3) good compression

Clean you carb and air filter and put some fuel injector cleaner in your gas, and spray some directly in the carb, you will see white smoke and you will need to keep the rev's up so it doesn't stall. Or you may have to take the carb off and clean it manually. Make sure you have good, fresh quality gas.

Change the spark plug and make sure the gap is correct - incorrect gap can advance or retard timing, depending if it is too wide or too narrow of a gap. The color of the spark plug should be a light to medium brown - too light means that the air/fuel mixture is too lean on the gas, too dark means that there is too much fuel and not enough air. Medium brown is prefered.

If your motor is too noisy or too quiet then the valves may be too loose or too tight.

I don't believe there is a timing adjustment on your machine... if the timing is off then the most common problem is a stretched timing chain.

If your compression is down then that doesn't necessarily mean that the rings are bad, it could also be a worn cam shaft. Not opening the valves wide enough to let all the air/fuel in and if the timing is off the same will result - thus not enough in the chamber to cause the compression to be high.

 

If eveything is ok with the engine then the next thing would be that your gearing is out of wack because of the larger tires, the transmission belt could be worn thinner changing the gearing, or the springs in the clutching system are getting weak thus changing the gearing. It could also be that somehow your got water and/or dirt in the transmission belt area and a simple cleaning could cure it.

 

You will also want to remove and check the inside of your belt housing. If my memory serves me correctly (getting older really sucks) there are a couple of seals or plugs inside the belt cover on the 500 auto that can leak oil. Which can coat the belt and pully surfaces and cause belt slippage.

I agree with buckaroo50 that gearing would be tha last thing to check. You either have an engine power loss for some reason OR belt slippage. Unless you are hearing some wierd noises from the tranny when in high range.

SJ

 

Thanks for the info guys. I went with 27" tires cause my (dealership) [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] said i could go 2"es bigger without needing to reclutch. If you've seen the swamp lites they are very aggressive and awsome in the mud. I recently changed all my oils and cleaned my air filter. I was'nt sure about the tranny and the guys at my local dealership keep their heads up their @zzez most of the time so I don't rely on them to much. They even gave me the wrong oil filter for my bike go figure.

I'm ordering a K&N air filter this week the stock filter is kinda cheap looking. I did'nt get a chance to pull the belt cover. I was thinking it would need a good cleaning. We've been hitting the mud pretty heavy lately.

I dropped off in a pretty nasty hole a few weeks ago and when i came out the other side I noticed that my belt was slipping in high so I went to low and it seemed fine I rode in low for about 5 min. went back to high and it seemed fine, but it did that 2 times that day. Ever since it seems that I've had this trouble with my high range power.

I have gotten out on the dirt road and opened it up tops out at about 48-49 mph.

I work out of town so I'm planning to get on some waterproofing when I get home in a couple of weeks. what are some of the problem areas on these bikes as far as waterproofing goes. I'm planning to just use silicone to seal up what I can. Any areas i should be extra careful with?

Thanks again guys your help greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

Wish I knew a little more about these things so I could be of some help to some of you guys.