Was out on a ride today with the guys, first real ride since November. I had to turn back due to a noise that developed in the clutch area. It was a metal on metal clanking vibration that occured anywhere from a very fast idle on up. I was able to limp home slowly; the noise did get a little worse on the way. It doesn't sound like it's anything internal, more like the clutch area. It does it both in gear and in neutral.
I took the clutch cover off to check for what happened; there was nothing obvious. I put a jumper wire in the belt failure switch plug to run the machine with the cover off. Even with the jumper in and the KEBC unplugged, I still got a fault. Can't rev the engine up enough to make the noise happen with the fault enabled.

Question 1 - does anyone know what the noise could be?

Question 2 - can the machine be made to run normally with the clutch cover off?
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Novakaw

The wires are long enough to hang the cover on the handlebar and test run it (probably should zip strap it on so it doesn't rattle off and land on your turning primary). If you have a puller you can just zip your clutch off and start it without the primary on,if its quiet you can rule out engine problems. With the clutch problems everyones having its likely thats where your problem is. Check the bearing in the face of your primary. Hope this helps.

 

1. Noises usually caused by worn shoes or bushing in the drive pulley. MAke sure pulley bolt is tight also. Remove secondary and check that the buttons are ok. Chewed belt might do this too.

2. as long as you take care of the belt trip switch and the KEBC motor, but if you tried to ride it, you may get an ouch from the belt sucking your pant leg in.

NOTE: You might have to do a KEBC reset, if after switching the trip switch to "ON" and the KEBC light stays flashing. The procedure is on my website, tech tips.

 

Thanks so far guys, hooked the wires up to the cover and everything worked, didn't even have to do a reset or reset the KBEC servo. The noise sounds like it might be coming from the secondary, scary sounding noise. I might pull it apart out of curiousity, even though I had it apart and greased it in December. Or I might take it to the dealer on Monday, I've got extended warranty and they're really good about covering stuff that Kawi doesn't want to consider.

Still open to ideas.

 

Scott;

Take your belt off, run your motor, if the noise is still there it's the primary. (or motor)

If no noise, shut of engine, put in neutral and turn the secondary by hand fast, you should be able to tell if it the clutch or trans. If it's the clutch, it's probably the bushings or helix.

I hope this is payback for the mistake I made the other day. lol

 

Well, now I am embarrassed! I just went out and slipped the belt off, still had the noise. The noise sounded so much like a vibration that I started checking everything that was bolted on. Managed to burn my fingers on the exhaust, but kept searching. Finally decided to check my skid plates again. (Had checked them while still in the woods. Looked under the machine, and lo' and behold, there was a bolt hanging down from the plow mount skid plate. I pushed up on the plate; noise gone. I should have checked closer while I was up in the woods. That explains why the noise got worse; the bolt kept vibrating looser as I drove along. Thanks to Sascach, Nyroc and Shotgun for your help, it's very much appreciated. At least I managed to learn a few things from the experience.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] At least you figured it out and it was something simple. Cost to fix = $0. That is always a good thing.

 

What clutch problems that everyone is having? Am I missing something? I know Shotgun and Alltoys are trying to fine tune their clutches, but I didn't know there was a problem. Aren't you a dealer? Are you seeing something that we don't know about?


I just e-mail Comet Industries today, to inquire if they were developing a HP clutch for the Prairie, similar to the one they have for the Polaris. I'll let everyone know what their response was.

 

Good point BrianT, I was wondering the same. I haven't heard of any problems.

Sascach, are you finding problems, other than belt.

 

Sorry scott but the trails were 199% today[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] did the ralley in lake charlotte awasome. Great to hear you are still mobile.