so just picked up a 96 350 wolv. great little bike lots of fun, however I do a fair amount of pavement running an fast pace trail riding (80% of the time I don't need 4x4 but its nice to have in some situations) and I'm in desperate need to take it out of 4x4. I knew this was going to be an issue before I bought the bike an was planning on getting the warn 424 disconnect. come to fine out this part is discontinued for the wolvy. anyway my question is has anyone swapped a front selectable 2wd/4wd diff out of a different bike into the wovly an been successful? is so which, if any, are direct bolt up? I know this has been discuseed before but I cant seam to find a good answer.

 

I know of no one that has swapped out the front axle/diff as your inquiring about. You might continue a "google search " and see if another company might still make the 4X4 manual disconnect for the Wolvy.

 

What you are looking for is the Warn 424 front axle disconnect, it replaces the front drive shaft, and has a cable pull lever you mount up by the tank or handle bars and pull to put it in 2wd. I had one on my 95 Wolverine, it mad it like a sport quad, corner sliding was way more fun, and it was a lot more fun to trail ride on the twisty stuff without the front pulling. Well worth the money.

 

^^^^I think he knows that. He mentioned that it was discontinued....

 

Might be able to find one on ebay, someone might be parting out a Wolverine. Or simply had extra parts lying around that they didn't use. A lot of big sellers on ebay might still have a few of them in stock too. That's where I would look, you might get lucky and find one there. The inventory constantly changes so keep checking and one might eventually pop up. This Yamaha dealer claims to be the largest parts dealer in the U.S. Drive, Yamaha Sports Plaza
Might contact them, they might have one.

 

So since I haven't had any luck finding a warn 424 anywhere, I'm going to try an do a diff swap. From what I've found from research a diff out of a newer big bear 400 should bolt right in. ( other bikes shear this diff aswell). So in going to buy a diff, drive shaft and axle (cuz mines stripped). If everything bolts in I'll just have to find a way to wire it up. I'll report back in the next few days.

 

Make sure the speed ratio of the big bear is the same as the Wolverine, or you will have the front end trying to go at a different speed to the back end.

 

So I had the diff in the bike and it does fit! But I have a few issues.. the stock wolverine front drive shaft is two long. As well, the output shaft on the 400 must be in a totally different spot the the 350 because the one I bought doesn't fit either. So if anyone knows of a bike having a similar drive shaft to the wolv but about 1.5-2 inches shorter, let me know.

 

We had a cockle picker with a Honda 350 or 450 needing a front prop shaft. Can't remember why, maybe we had two shafts with worn out splines at opposite ends, or a shaft that was too long, but we cut the shaft(s) with an angle grinder and I machined a thick tube to be a tight fit on the shafts, slid the cut ends into the tube and welded the tube onto both halves of the shaft with the assembly in place. It worked fine for the rest of the bike's (short) life.

 

Use the BB front shaft.

Read this thread:

http://www.wolverinecentral.com/foru...ead.php?t=1754