Hello everyone! I'm back to a Kawasaki!!!! I just picked up a new to me 2002 Prairie 300 2wd. The quad drives in reverse, but won't drive in forward. When you try the forward gears, it'll make almost a grinding sound....sometimes, if you get lucky, you can put in in H/L and you'll get no grinding.....you can drive forward about 4' or so, and then you'll get the grinding again. At first I thought maybe it was a rear differential, but because its a 2wd model, and reverse works fine - I no longer think thats the issue. I am REALLY green with all of this, so I don't even know where to look.....hell it may be the rear differential. There is a lot of documents/tutorials on how to swap the rear end, but nobody seems to tell you how you know if you have a bad rear.....

Today, I put the quad in reverse like normal.....but as soon as gas was applied it wanted to die.....after running for a few minutes, it seemed to alleviate that problem as well, but I noted it. I don't know where to start with this ATV, but I'd love to learn. Anyone have any ideas as to what this could be?

Some pics just for the heck of it.....

 

The first thing i would do is look for metal shavings in the oil of the diff and the crankcase.

 

So when I changed the rear diff fluid, I didn't see anything in there.....however, I stuck my finger in there, and almost felt like there was a metallic glitter on my finger. It could be nothing, but I did take a note of that in my head.

 

Flush the diff and check for metal, you can use kerosene to flush, if clean then add diff lube , drain and refill again then good to go. Also check engine oil for particles. Check adjustment on shifter linkage, sounds like someone may have forced a shift while on the go. Possible linkage bent or damaged shift fork in transmission

 

Things I would do...

raise rear wheels off ground and under power try fwd and reverse.

with engine off, do the same.

If that doesnt reveal anything, pull off the clutch cover and inspect the clutches for something obvious. if all looks good, do the wheel test again, under power and manually.

On my prairie 400 4x4, the right running board and the rear brake pedal have to be removed before belt cover will come off.