I have recently purchased a 98 Xpress 300 for what I thought was a grat price ($800 CDN). It was not very well maintained and needed a thourough cleaning, carb cleaning, new belt, chain, and sprockets.

I fixed the obvious problems and went riding. I rode woods trails for 6 hours Sunday with no problem. Hurray right? I took the thing out tuesday and noticed a howl coming from the middle of the machine. I had already ordered a new primary spring and installed it today, the belt was fine and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I took it out tonight and the howl is as bad or worse than before.

I troubleshooted as follows:

1. The noise changes pitch from low to high as speed increases

2. When tapped out full speed the noise quiets right down but is still noticable

3. When the throttle is released at full speed and it coasts in gear the noise is gone

4. The noise is present in both high and low, but not at all in reverse

5. When coasting in neutral at any speed the noise is gone.

I need an expert to tell me how to further diagnos and repair this as it is unridable as noisy as it is now.

Chheck the back clutch.See if it snaps back when you turn the sheave halfs opposite directions.You may need to take it apart to see if the buttons in it are ok.