Tell me about it, Jason! Before I had to turn back I could drive on top of 3 feet of snow and barely leave a tire track. We could go anywhere! Waaaaaa!!

 

I heard back today from a rep at Comet Industries and he said that they are NOT currently developing a HP clutch for Kawasakis, only for Polaris. Bummin.

 

Yea we are having other problems other than the belts, well actually the belts havn't been a big problem for us our average belt life is about 4500 km and to me that isn't all that bad, would be nice to get 7or 8000km like we do with our 400s but we can't really expect that running half again as much horses and half the size belt. The problem is the bushings in the driven clutch wear out prematurly. We've had cluches worn out before the belt. On the 400s the bushings were replacable but the new style secondary doesn't leave us that luxury. However we've done enough whining that kawi has changed the design of the driven clutch. As for the drive clutch we've had no problems whatsoever. Seen them with over 10000km on them and they still look fine. We tried a proto clutch for kawi on one of our high use customers and it seems that its working great, it has about 5500km on it and the messurments are the same as they were when it was new. If we can get our belt life to 6000km with the new style secondarry and the black spring we will be more than pleased. Mite get crap from the forum for this but yes I am a dea!!er.

 

Sascach, I'm one of the "high usage riders" with the protype clutch and lovin every minute of it. I love it so much that kawi will not get it back from me[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I have approx. 5000km on it and we just replaced the belt because that belt was in it for 4 months. Now I have about 14200km and 740 hours on my bike.

 

I have a 02 650 Prairie (June 01) . At 2000 kil, Kawa replace the driven . At 3000 kil , I replace the bushing in the driven with oillite bushing. At 3500 kil I open the driven and I notice that the oillite bushing will be good for only another 500 kil (not more). So I will go back to the original bushing wich is 40MM X 44MM X 20MM but it is not available from KAWA .You will find that at your local bearing dealer with the greace and dust seal for about 40.$ Can. Belt and driven problem that is only thing I don't like with my P 650 but I realy dont Like it .For the black plastic I still can use my P 650 not a big problem for me this plastic.........
C O N C O U R S

 

Concours - were you able to press the original bushing out or was it more complicated than that?

 

Sascash, Have you ran into any belt's for the 650 that were to thin from the factory? I had one put on a few month's ago and it was to narrow by the spec's in the manual, I micrometer'ed it and the service limit is I think 28mm well the NEW belt was like 27.6mm! I measuered 4 different ones and one of the mechanic's did also, I said this is BS, whoever is making these belt's for Kaw is screwing all of us this thing wont last no time, they put in on anyway under warr. and said to see haow it does, It now has about 75-100 miles on it and is to loose, with the thinnest shim avalaible(0.6mm) so here's my problem, they take the last shim out and it tightens it up a little, number one this belt isn't going to last no time at all. number 2 and new belt should NOT have to run with NO shims in the clutch to get the deflection tight enough! am I right? I think I am these belt's are to narrow to start with and I going to have my dealer call Kaw back and tell them this is really starting to get annoying.....

 

Only with an hammer and a punch ,but you have to find the right place on the bushing, that place is where the bushing is starting or finishing . you have to put your punch near that line (I hope you will be able ro read me, it is difficult for me to say that in english )

C O N C O U R S

 

Stakk

I went throught the same thing on the first 650 belt I replaced. If you look at the belt the outer edges are trimmed off (this is usually where a belt starts to come apart) so the top doesn't get ripped off. This is the scoop on the narrow messuerments, if you lay a strait edge on each sid of the belt (not along side but pointing up) and then take your width mes. at the top of the belt between the strait edges, you will get the right messurement. If this doesn't make sence think of it as adding the material they trimmed off either side to your mess. Kawi does know thier belts stretch to fast and I think with this new clutch they machined out the fixed shieve so you have more adjustment. I'm thinkin the new 700 belt will work on the 650s so that might be another big help

 

Stakk - make sure you are measuring by the method in the service manual; you can't just measure the belt at its widest point. You have to use 3 straight edges, or measure it in the driven clutch on an imaginary line. A very stupid and difficult way of doing this simple measurement.

With that in mind, I have the measurement of a brand new belt that I just bought. I used the simplest method possible. I measured it at its widest point with a digital caliper, using the flat faces of the caliper jaws as opposed the the sharp edges of the jaws. I measured across the belt at a top cog as opposed to measuring between 2 cogs, as it does make a difference in the value.

The new belt at its widest point measures: 28.94mm, 1.139in.
The old belt at its widest point measures: 27.65mm, 1.089in.

My old belt was slightly under the factory service limit minimum, when checked in the Kawasaki factory go/no go gauge.