My p700 makes a rattling sound over un-even terrain. It seems to be coming from where the swingarm mounts to the engine. (inside the rubber boot) It sounds like when a u-joint is bad. Is this normal or is something wrong? The bike is still under warranty but if it has to go to the dealer I want to be informed first.
It has never been wrecked, rolled, or landed hard.

 

Put your quad on a frame stand of some sort so both rear wheel are off the ground. start the engine, put it in gear and listen for the area that it might be coming from. If you think it's in the area of the boot between the swing arm and the engine, take one of the clamps off the boot and push the u-joint side-to-side and up and down. If there is no play the problem is not in the u-joint. there will be a tiny bit of play in the splined shaft that is joined to the u-joint. Hope this is some help to you. venforcer.

PS dont forget to shut the engine off before you take the boot off. ha ha.

 

DaRiot,

I hate to tell you this - really hate to tell you this - but that is exactly what my wife's was sounding like and I kept taking back in to the shop. Ended up being a shim missing out of the transmission. They had to pull the engine out of the bike and completely disassemble it. This was with 40 miles on the bike!

Has it made this same noise since it was new? Has the noise changed any? Is it more noticeable when the bike is warmed up good? Answer these questions and maybe I can help you out.

 

The noise has always been there, never changed, and doesn't matter if it is warm or cold.
I can put my hand against the rubber boot with the engine off and rock it back and forth and feel a clunck in that area.

 

Man, that sounds just like what my wife's was doing. There was a shim missing off of one of the shafts in the transmission. I believe that it went between the last gear on the high/low range shaft and the bearing in the case on the left hand side of the engine as you are sitting on the bike. It always sounded like it was coming from the same area you are describing. They kept draining the oil looking for metal particles - never found any in the rear end oil or the engine oil. The removed the rear end twice checking the u-joint and the gear set-up - couldn't find anything wrong. Finally took the engine out and completely disassembled it and found that there was a shim missing off of that shaft that was letting the gears "walk" back and forth. Sounded just like a bad u-joint or like the gears in the rearend weren't set-up right. Anyway, Kawi extended the warranty for a year without me even asking. I was pretty upset when they first said that they were going to pull the engine down on my wife's brand new machine, but the mechanic that did the job is really good, and you can't even tell that it was ever worked on.

Two more things - Is it louder or more noticeable in high range? On hers, it was mainly when it was in high range. In low range and in reverse, you couldn't hardly hear it.

Her VIN# ends in 504400 and her engine# ends in 506821.

Check and see if yours are close to this. It may have been someones first week on the job. Never know.

 

 

I have a 04 700 that makes a similar noise . It usually does it when going slow , on and off the gas . It's almost like slack in all the linkage . But as long as your on the gas and leaving tension on avery thing there is no noise .

 

DaRiot - don't worry, it's driveline slack. You notice it the most at very slow speeds, particularly in low range when on and off the throttle. They all have it.

 

DaRiot,

Check it out in both high range and low range. If it is more noticeable in high range than in low range, you could have the missing shim problem. If it is the same in high range and low range, then it probably is just driveline slack. Both of ours have that slack in them too.

If it is more noticeable in high range, take it to the shop pronto. If you run it for a long time with that shim missing, it is going to eat itself alive from the inside. If your luck is like mine, it will spit the entire transmission out the side of the case the day after your warranty runs out!

Seriously, check it in low range and high range. If you think you are biased from listening to it all the time, have a friend ride it and listen to it.

Let me know. I am interested to find out.

 

Whew!
It is only in low range so I guess it is just the slack.

Now if I could only locate the noise in the front end. Kinda sounds like a playing card in the spokes when turning.