i have a 97 prairie 400 4x4 and there is a knocking noise coming from the left side, sounds like from behind the transmission housing. the belt has been changed recently, the noise has been there a long time. i was told that other bikes with a similar trans do the same thing. is this something i should worry about? have any of you had this same problem and if so what did you do to fix it if anything. any help will be appreciated....

 

There is triangular shaped piece (like a starfish) in the middle of the drive converter. It is called Spider. At the end of each arm, there is a button or spacer. If there is too much clearance, it would make a knocking noise especially when idling. There are different thickness buttons available and you can make the clearnace tighter.

 

will not fixing those spacers hurt anything? or is it more of an annoyance. thanks for your help....

 

I am not aware of any long term damage on the machine because of too much clearance between the Spider arm and the wear button, just an annoying knocking noise. However, in order to be certain, you make remove the drive converter from the crank end and run the engine. See if the knocking noise is still there or not. Another cheap trick is to insert a piece of thin cardboard (or any other suitable temporary shim) bewteen the gaps and run the engine. Just remember to remove after the testing.

 

My 2000 was making a little knocking noise. I figured it was time for a new belt anyway after 3000 miles and 400 hours so I pulled off the cover and took a look.

Upon inspection and rotating the clutch by hand I noticed the weights/ramps were worn some and the roller bushings they ride against were loose. The weights were also wearing into the clutch housing because there didn't appear to be any spacers/washers.

After adding up new weights, rollers, probably pins & buttons, etc, not to mention my clutch faces were worn some, I bit the bullet and ordered a Comet 103 HPQ clutch. That solved my noisy clutch.

FOR SALE - One Primary Clutch Puller Bolt - used one time. Like new. $25 including shipping. I don't need it now because the Comet Clutch uses a different puller.

Oh, by the way - those spiders are very hard to remove while the clutch is on the machine. It is best to remove the clutch and put it in a vise which has a special holding tool. sometimes you must heat up the assembly to loosen the spider. I don't specifically know about KAW's spider, but I know the Comet is loctited on and must be heated. I don't recall the KAW manual saying anything about heating it. I can check if you want. I just didn't get that far before I decided I was going to get a whole new clutch.

Jim