I've been reading everybodies forum discussions about the problems with the Z.(frame, etc) Now heres my list. First about a month ago the coolant started leaking out. Called Honda of Troy "oh yeah I got all the waterpump parts in stock, must be a problem been selling quite a bit of em".
Now a month later at a GNCC WHAM there goes the transmission! And I mean goes! Took it apart last night and list of parts needed include but not limited to: Countershaft(broke in half) all three reverse gears(cause of problem) third gear driven, fifth gear driven, first gear drive, CENTER CASES! (bearing holder in cese for broken shaft exploded case. the list continues.
Very disapointed with the amount of wear in this engine.
Purchased quad in November ridden by fourth (so far) ranked women in the GNCCs 8 races its destroyed.
Ordered parts today with major discount over $1000.00 so far

And to think the only reason we swithched from 400ex was for REVERSE. Sucks to be me!

 

lets see some pictures of the broken tranny

 

you must be doing something wrong because i never heard of that with any z. maybe your running the wrong oil or something.something is causing that because who else in this forum has that problem? people in these forums have strong running Z-400's.

 

No Problems with mine, but I also don't race competitively

 

I Change the oil and oil filter after every race. Granted the races this year have been tough, more muddy races than dry. Also we ride we're not pit squids. Between my Wolverine and her Z we go thru 10-15 gallons of gas a week.
Now I have raced since 1986 and am a firm believer of preventive maintenance. And with all of the dirtbikes and quads that I have owned, never have I seen this much damage.
I am the cause of the extent of the damage only by telling her to try to finish the event that she was doing so well in.
We should have the parts by Saturday and am planning to continue racing the machine. Just wanted to share my experiance.
I also found out today from a local shop that he has one in that is starting to slip between gears also (how ours did).[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]

 

Hey guys, that DRZ 400 motor that Suzuki puts in their quads hasn't had the best reliability record at all. Motocross Action magazine raced a DRZ dirtbike a couple of years ago...they took off all of the enduro stuff...lights..kickstand..ect & they has nothing but problems with the motor....broken trannys were a common sight to them & they also had valve train problems...I remember them comparing the valve stems to a wine glass stem...both pretty weak. They pissed Suzuki off so much with that article that Suzuki pulled all their ads from MXA for a couple of years. But to be fair to Suzuki...they didn't intend for that bike to be raced....they called it a play bike..which is what it is. Mike Keidrowski's & the rest of the off-road teams bikes all had beefed up trannies & valvetrains to handle the rigors of racing. Bottom line is that the Z 400 quad is a "Sport quad" not a race quad.

 

You must also remember to be completely stopped when switching in and out of reverse (which I am sure you do when your trying to win a race). This is most likely what happened to your bike and most of the Raptors that had tranny problems.

 

I know the z ain't called a race quad when you categorize it but over half that race mx and stuff aren't they are tricked out sports quads. They aren't to many pure race quads especially anymore. Look at Kory Ellis 2002 gnc champion on a z, also Brandon Ballance who is a rising star and always finishes around the top on his z and look at Duncan racings success. The z isn't a race quad in name but this sports quad has untapped power that is made for racing. I'm sure the article might have said this about the drz400 motor but it's like the mags always do contradicting what they said in a diffrent issue. Everything I've read has said that this engine has proved itself for years and that's why suzuki used it.

 

I agree that it's a pretty decent motor for use in a quad & also that MXA has test riders that ride in the expert/pro class so they are real hard on their bikes. But I'll bet that those guys you mentioned that race the 400Z motor aren't running stock engines.

 

Z400’s have been having the ever loving CRP beat out of them for over a year now in every form of racing known, and this is the first tranny problem I’ve ever heard of. Sucks that it happened to ya, but its definitely not a week tranny. Hope you have better luck with the next one.
Give me a weekend and I could destroy any quad tranny made by purposely abusing it, hope your wife isn’t doing just that with misuse