Being a v2 owner and hearing the negatives on Kawi vs duramatic, I talked to a service tech in St Cloud, Mn. His words "statistics in his shop show that it is correct to assume the duramatic is better than the Kawi drive...... By about 5%!!" He said out of 100 machines with tranny problems he has come in, on average, 55 of them will be Kawi driven, and 45 will be duramatic. They are both very good trannys are very much in the same class. OPINION will state otherwise, but I feel better about my belt drive knowing the facts

 

Im not sure i followed that.
The duramatic is just suzukis name for the belt drive cvt tranny...right? So arent they both belt drives?
Theres a bit of differences between the kawi tranny and the suzuki. Theres not much maint to be done on the suzi, no alinements to get right, no shut down for loose belt, no limp home problems, no complicated ebs system.
Id say by checking the past posts, theres much more problems with the kawi vs suzi cvts, than 5 %.
my 2 cents.

 

Your correct. I should have worded it different. I do know though that he services machines every day and said they are NOT in totally different leagues from each other. Despite all the different complicated ares of kawis tranny, they both have statistically the same number of problems

 

i don't buy that hogwash for a minute,he was just trying to pacify you,kawi has had a belt issue for a long time, and they have not to my knowledge fixed the problem,every body in the free world knows about it.........

 

Your wrong, they have fixed it, they changed the gear ratio. Ask around

 

i said to my knowledge, glad to hear that, thanks.. wayout, out............

 

From what I understand, the biggest difference in the two systems is that the kawi belt slips on take-off and therefore will wear quicker. So, for the V2, keeping the belt in proper deflection is the most important thing. If the belt is kept tight, the Kawi system is very reliable. I checked mine at 250 miles and it was on the loose side, so I removed one shim from the secondary clutch to get it to the low end of the deflection specs. I now have about 650 miles and have had very little belt wear, I've lost about 1mm of deflection in 400 miles. Based on that, I'll probably need to remove another shim at 1300 to 1500 miles. And I have an 05 with the higher gear ratio! Obviously It's hard to be completely accurate, but based on current wear I can expect about 4000 out of my belt.
That being said, is AC's duramatic used in the H1, 500, and 400 a better system? Definately!
Just keep your belt tight and you should have a very reliable quad.

 

Can you tell me how to go about checking and where are the shims located?. I had a 93 honda before this so this one is new to me

 

There is a website called "Kisssofdeath ATV website" that details, with photos, the procedure for checking belt deflection and removing shims from the secondary clutch if necessary. It shows the Kawi 650 but of course it's the same belt system for us in our V2s. I had to buy a few tools, and the first time it did take 2 or 3 hours, but I wanted to learn how to do it myself anyway (I'm not very machanically inclined). Now it would take about 45 minutes to do the whole thing. Kind of a pain at first but not really to bad. Otherwise your dealer should be able to do it easily (although my dealer was new to AC and had no idea about the Kawi belt system, which was another reason why I learned to do it myself). I also bought a shop manual, which I think is very helpful also.
Any questions about the procedure, let me know, and if I can help, I will.

 

i have owned machines with both tranny's and i gotta say hands down duramatic is wayyyyyy better. the duramatic is exactly what it says durable you just put it in gear and drive they got the what do they call it wet belt drive system or something like that where the belt is always turning and kawi uses a centrificle system like a snowmobile that wears easier. i have put the clutch kit in mine and took out the shim and it made a world of difference but i know if i get in some really swampy area's even in low with 27 inch tires i can feel the belt slip just a lil. and if you need any help v2rider feel free to message me again i have been in there about 4 times now actually 5 times and i can take off the clutch cover remove a shim or belt and have it together in about 20 min. but don't get discouraged cause if you use low range for everything except if you are going 65 down the road you will be fine. i just use the rule of thumb anything under 48 mph use low range anything above 50 use high range, and if you plan on driving 49 i guess you are screwed [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]