Kawasaki's Prairie 650 has a sensor built-in so if the belt begins to shred it will trip the sensor before it does any major damage. Once this sensor is tripped your digital display blinks and it limits you to 10 mph. The problem is that if you hit the brakes hard and gas it hard the belt can hit the sensor and trip it. We had to call several Kaw dealers before we found on that knew what was going on (we were in Wisconsin on an ATV trip and had to rely on the phone book). Once we found a Kaw dealer that a)was open and b)knew what was going on it took less then 5 min to reset it.

Now here's the problem, Kawasaki is treating this issue as a service item. They now that this sensor can and well accidently be tripped but instead of resolving the problem they want to treat it as a service issue. I believe that since Kawasaki did not build in a way to manually reset this sensor it should be treated as a warranty issue. We had to tow a fellow rider 30 miles because he was riding hard and the belt tripped the sensor. We should have been able to look up in the "trouble shooting" part of manual and determine what the problem is and once we determined the belt was not shredding we should have been able to reset the sensor and continue on.

According to the dealer who helped us Kaw knows there's a problem and told us that he does not understand why Kaw will not cover it under warranty like it should be. This dealer was an outstanding dealer and he only charged us $12 and had us back on the trail in only a few minutes. But we had to interrupt our trip to trailer thw wheeler to the dealer so he could fix it - it tool less than 5 minutes. Stop by your dealer and let them know that you know about this problem and have your dealer contact their factory rep and insist that this be fixed under warranty!

 

Thanks for the warning about the sensor. How exactly did the dealer reset the sensor?

 

One of the wives took it to the dealer but she said that he remvoed the side cover over the belt and flipped a switch and replaced the cover. It was that simple and it would have been alot easier to make the repair in the woods then towing it 30 miles. Except for that problem the our two Kaw 650's ran circles around all the other quads that went on the trip with us. Guys with 2 wheel drives watched us with envey as we powered through the corners - IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

 

Thanks for keeping us up to date. The service manual shows a picture of the manual toggle switch labeled on/off. It looks like you reset it manually. You could even unplug the sensor's electical lead (this could either disconnect the sensor, or trigger it, I'm not sure which)

 

Jeff what page did you find that in the manual?

 

16-76
Thanks.

 

Hey in your owner manual page 151 upper right hand corner about the adjustment high altitude adjustment over 4000 feet In live in colorado everything here is over 4000 feet does your repair manual have anything in it on this adjustment?.If it does I sure wouls like the information. scan and E-mail it to me if you can. I'VE ASK THE DEALER BUTYOU KNOW HOW THAT IS. THINK THEY ARE AFRAID TO MESS WITH IT
Thanks mudrunner12646.

 

Sorry, all my says its to take it to your dealer. I would think if you bought it in Colorado they would have already made the neccessary adjustments, but you are doing the right thing by varifying it. Good Luck.

 

If you ever take off the cover make sure not to bump that switch. I was draining some water out of mine and hit the switch. When I started it up the whole display was blinking so I took it apart and hit the switch the other way. The display stoped blinking but then the 2wd/4wd light kept blinking back and fourth. Had to wait a month for the dealer to fix it. I could still go well over 10 mph though. Just a word of warning.

 

I have not tried it yet, but I think you could reset the belt switch through the hole in the cover where the air boot is. If you can't reach it with your fingers you should be able to use a piece of wire bent in the right shape, sort of the old fashion way of unlocking car doors with a coat hanger. All you have to do is hook it and pull towards the rear of the quad. (The belt bumps it in the forward position or "OFF". I would make the wire long enough to prevent it from being dropped in the case. If this "tripping" of the switch occurs with some frequency, I would remove the cover and follow the sevice manual procedure for the belt inspection. If it trips in the field you can remove the boot, put the quad in neutral, and roll it while viewing the belt on the driven sheave, and then CAREFULLY check the tension with your finger(only with the brake on and ignition off!). If the belt looks OK, then you could use the wire to reset the switch. You could also jump it out at the connect with a jumper wire. I believe the switch breaks the connection to report a belt problem? You could verify that with a meter to be sure. I am going to try the wire thing tonight and if it works, throw it in with tool kit stuff. Perhaps the belt stretches some with hard use when they are new? The tension adjustment involves some disassembly and the shimming of the driven sheave I think. As for the altitude question, I don't have the service manual here, but I remember seeing a chart for altitude specifications. It involved different jets for the carbs, and different weight ramp parts for the drive sheave. Perhaps someone with a scanner can post the chart...........