Marylandatv,

I live in a small town of about 12,000 people and it is steadily declining. I know the dealer isn't exactly making a killing right now around here. The economy here is absolutely horrible. I hate to insist to the dealer that he eat the 7 grand and work it out with Kawasaki. We are sort of going at them from 2 fronts. He is being very helpful and is working it from his end also.

I can see where it would have benefitted me to go to a really large dealership and buy the quad. But, I have always dealt with these guys and I have never heard of a defective 650 or 700 right off of the showroom floor. I wanted to give THEM my business because they always take good care of me.

I am sure it will al work out. My reason for involving all you guys is that you have more knowledge about these machines than most dealers. i was hoping someone would read this and go "yeah, it's the so-and-so. I've seen this exact problem"

 

Call around some other dealers in Arkansas and see if they have had this problem. Also try to get the area rep's name and # out of them and call them and try to get them to go look at it. I know what you mean about your dealer down there. He makes his living in Oct. & Nov. I bet.

 

UPDATE.....Dealer found a shim missing from the factory on one the shafts in the tranny.....What are the chances of that? Must have been made on a Friday!! Kawasaki had already said to replace the entire transmission, so I will have all new stuff in there in a week or so, plus the missing shim. I will keep you guys posted as to whether or not this solves the noise problem.

Thanks a million everyone for your posts. It is good to see a nice group of people that all share a common interest and are willing to help each other.

 

Good luck.

 

We all hate to be the one to get the one with a problem, but it happens. It's hard to believe there aren't more lemons out there, and I'm not dissing Kawasaki, I'm just commenting on the fact that they're built on an assembly line, by people like you and I. The shim installer probably did at least 100 transmissions that particular day, and if he only missed 1 shim, he wasn't doing too badly.
I work on heavy duty diesels for a living, and we get a lot worse quality control from our suppliers than any ATV manufacturer I've ever heard of. The boss tears his hair out when we "waste" time double checking new parts, then pats us on the back when we find a problem.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

Glad they are taking care of it for you. Now you can tear those woods up.

 

PROBLEM SOLVED....The noise was being caused by the missing shim. The shim belonged on the end of one of the shafts in the transmission. It is basically a spacer that goes between the last gear on that shaft and the bearing in the side of the case. It was a little over a millimeter thick. With this shim being left out from the factory, the gears in the transmission were walking sideways and chattering. REALLY noticeable while pulling away from a stop. Kawasaki replaced the entire transmission, and they went ahead and honed it and put new rings in it since it was down, even though the bike only has 40 miles on it. Now I am going to pursue Kawasaki about giving me an extended warranty on this machine.........I will let you guys know if I have any luck with that.

 

You know whats sad? This problem made it out of the factory and it made it out of the dealership!! What the hell?? Do they not drive these after they pull them out of the crate? Do they not drive them at the factory for the engine break in?

 

bbertram, it was just one of those bad situations. When the oil was still cold, it wasn't that noticeable. The warmer the oil got, the louder the noise. Hell, I loaded it up myself and unloaded it and drove it around the yard when I got home. Never heard a thing out of the ordinary. We have a new little baby girl (7 months old now), so that puts a damper on when we get to ride. The bike sat in the garage for 2 weeks before we got a chance to ride. Within the first mile of the ride, we started hearing the noise. We should have put it right back on the trailer then and carried it back to the dealer. But the weather was nice, the trail was perfect, and the beer was cold. We thought "It'll wear in, whatever it is". Note to self: Missing shims do not "wear in"! Anyway, just one of those things. I can see where it didn't get caught during uncrating, filling with fluids, and checkout.

 

Yah I suppose but the factory should be breaking in the motors on a dyno at the factory. I guess they don't run them long enough there either. Good to see your all fixed up.