The KQ also makes a clicking sound when one of the rear U-joints is about to go. If you can vary the clicking noise by shifting between 2wd and 4wd then it could be this.

Jaybee

 

jaybeecom55 sorry abut jumping in on this one after your reply i was typing a reply and clicked the reply before i knew you had answered it first !
I agree with jaybeecom55 on the CV joint's could be the culprit when they start to go bad , but usualy you can still hear the clicking or popping noise even in 2wd , it could also be a wheel bearing and if the wheel size on the front and rear or difference thsi could cause the gearing to change between the front and rear differencial's ; my late cousin's 1989 Suzuki LT4WD 250 Quad Runner had 11' inch wheel's on the rear and 10' one the front !

But the 1993 Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ had 12' inch wheel's front and rear , and the clicking /popping noise will be as autible with 2wd and 4wd ; and get louder when you're making tight turn's even more when in 4wd !

If it had been 6 month's or more since servicing the u joint's you need to remove the cv boot's and clean out the old grease and repack the cv joint's with clean grease !

And check the cv boot's for split's or tear's , and while youre at it check the the bearing and seal's for gear oil seeping around them ; one other thing alot of owner's don't change the differencial gear oil which is often overlooked by owner's who do their own serving !

But these are all good place's to start , the 1993 Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ has the same 12 inch rim's on them , sometime's people will try a larger wheel size to get larger wheel's and tire's trying to get more ground clearnace which will get the gearing off on the front and rear of the quad !......

 

So let me get this right. I was actually thinnking about getting new rims and tires eventually and if I understand what is being said then I would need to stick with the twelves in the back and elevens in the front? Also, since I am so new to ATV's, I am not excately sure what to expect out of my KQ300 (1995). I opened it up topday WOT and could only reach about 43mph. Is that average. I know there are lots of variables in that question, but maybe just a guestimation. Also, I have noticed the heat coming off of the engine, and I feel like this is to be expected of this model (runs pretty hot, air cooled). I have read about the aftermarket fans available for this model. Are they worth it? Would I only need that if I were traveling very long distances for long periods of time? Do they even still sell what I am talking about (fan)? Sorry for the bombardment of questions, but you (everyone) has been so helpful thus far and I am enjoying the learning experience.

oh, yeah, and is it normal that turning in diff lock is really difficult and limited?

Differential oil is located where? I would like to check it out to see if the previouis owner maintanenced it correctly (by changing it). While we are at it, is the battery under the black cover by the headlights? It's gotta be, I have looked everywhere else.???

The ticking from my engine (why I started this thread) is definately coming from my valves. If you put your ear to it, it's clear where it is coming from. My noise is a clicking noise, no popping or anything like that.

The baffle?? I have read that the baffle in the muffler rust out pretty easily. I think this has happened to the one I have purchased. Is this bad? There seems to be a tube (metal) rolling around in the muffler, would that be the baffle? Reason I know this is because the pipe had a pretty big whole in it and I could grab that peice of metal and roll it, lift it up and down, ect. I have since fixed the whole, but am wondering about this baffle thing.

Leave it to me (someone who knows nothing about engines) to go and buy a quad. HEHE. But I guess you have to start somewhere, just didn't know it would be at 33, LOL.

 

Wheels and tires - Yes, the KQ uses a different size for the front and rear. 4WD gearing keeps them turning at the right rate so as to not scrub. It is best to keep to the same tire size ratio, however I know of several that went ahead and put the same size on the front and rear. If you mostly run in soft dirt, mud or sand you'll probably never notice anything wrong with the tires. If you run on hardpack then there will be a little pulling and pushing going on, but only if you are in 4WD.

Speed - KQ's are only fast when being trailered. 43 is a good average top speed. It actually will do more but it takes forever to get there. I have paced a friends KQ300 at 52 to 54 MPH, but this was only after a long straight and level run where it slowly built up to this top speed (and no, it was not going downhill or being towed). As soon as the KQ hits any kind of hill that top speed will fall way off and take forever to get back.

The engine heat is more of a problem when going at slow speeds in hot weather. If you're running faster then there is more air flow to cool the engine down. There are many ways of doing an aux cooling fan, simpliest is to have a manual switch to turn it on when you feel that it's getting hot. There will be lots of times when it gets hot - it's a large and heavy bike and only air cooled - not even an oil cooler.

Turning in dif lock is difficult. But, that's true for almost any quad with a true locker on the front end.

Rear dif shares the same oil as the engine, so you add it to that fill cap behind the right side rear axle. Front dif should have an obvious fill and drain plug.

Good job on narrowing down the battery location. Some people have given up finding it. Yes, it's under the black cover that goes around the headlights.

I don't think you'll ever get the ticking to go completely away. Go for adjusting the valves and/or changing oil weight.

My brothers old KQ completely blew out the back end of his muffler - it had rusted completely away.

I bought my first quad (a Warrior) when I was 37. Got my KQ300 when I was 38.

Jaybee

 

OLDSCHOOLQUAD what year is your KQ ?

The 1989 Suzuki LT4WD 250 Quad Runner my cousin had used 2 different wheel and tire sizes , the rear's were 25x10x11's ; the front had 25x8x10's and was only air cooled .

But the 1993 Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ had a oil cooler without a cooling fan , it had the mount's and wiring plug for a cooling fan you could get as an option !

And on the 93' KQ had the same size rim's with tire size , Rear's were 25x10x12's ; and Front's were 25x8x12's so the only difference was the tire Width of the front tire's !

And the Rim's on the 89' and 93' Suzuki's had the thickest steel of any atv i've ever seen , they were bullit proff

You're right about the diff lock being hard to steer , my 2006 Arctic Cat 400 FIS Auto is very hard to steer with the locker on ; and on the 93' KQ you could only get the locker on in 1st gear with the sub transmission in super low !.........

 

I have a 95 as well that my dad purchased brand new and my brother and myself put 100 miles on it the first night my dad got it.


The ticking is something that can always be heard coming from the engine, like a lifter making noise, however, if it is like a irregular grinding-ticking-popping noise it sounds like a cv joint. Two years ago we had to replace the rear axle. First really major issue with the bike.


As for your diff lock. On that bike when you put that bike in 4wd superlow diff lock you are engaging the front and rear lockers so you have all four wheels pulling all the time at the same speed. You should only use this if you are in need of going through a bad hole or you are needing to climb say a steep hill. But you donot want to turn much locked into this gear because you are going to be putting extreme pressure on the all the 4wd components. Especially the fron cv's and axles.

FYI-- if you take the Suzuki and lock it down you can go up to a tree with one tire against a tree and climb it.


Hope you enjoy the bike. It is the only bike out there that has as many options of gearing on the market. You have 30 different gear ratio's that you can put that bike into. I taken my bike many places that other bikes they wish they could go.


As for tires you need to stay with the less aggressive mud tires. The clutches and differentials are designed for wheel slippage. If you put big mud tires you are going to start breaking things. I have had great luck with old school super swampers. I have gone places the honda's with outlaws cant go because of the diff lock.

 

jpmpt even on my 2006 Arctic Cat FIS Auto you have to be in low range to engauge the Diff lock , and maximum speed is 10 MPH and even at this speed it's like fighting a Grizzly Bear to steer this Beast with the Differencial locked ; with the Cat in 4x4 i've climbed over fallen tree's that were over 12 inch in gerth ( Around ) with no problem at all !

My AC 400 has 12 inch ground clearance and it's powered by a Suzuki 376cc Engine , with Suzuki's Duramatic Belt Driven Clutch Transmission and some places i had to go around on the KQ ; i could just keep on going on the Cat because of the ground clearance and the height of this Cat !

As much as i love the KQ it had some flaw's that my old 86' Honda TRX350 Foreman didn't , and the Foreman had some design Flaw's that my Cat doesn't have !

They all have some kind of Flaw that another quad doesn't in every Year make and model on all Brand's that a rider's skill can overcome , so much that i could write a Novel on the 3 Brand's i've mentioned alone ; there are so many i would have to start a new thread to list them all !

Here are the one's on the KQ , No. 1. The slack Motion caused by the sub transmission , making it hard for someone like my cousin's lack of strenth to shift with his foot ; and his lack of experance in the correct RPM's to shift gear's was why he would start off in 3 rd or 4 th gear whtch is hard on the clutch !

Someone like myself who had driven a truck for a living that had the same sub transmission in the International truck's i drove made it easy to get the hang of shifting in no time at all , even after i lost my leg's i could mount a hand shifter ; and change the gear's on the KQ from my experiance driving these truck's !

No. 2. i had the gear ratio's at 15 where you have 30 , you aparently were counting 2wd and 4wd mode's ; so if you counted every mode you could add 1 for Diff Lock and if i'm not mistaken you could add 3 more for reverse using high low and superlow making it 34 gear ratio's in all !

But i may be wrong about the reverse , i would have to go next door to my brother's house and try it out to be sure because my brother still has my cousin's 1993 Suzuki LT4WD 300 KQ ; in fact he still has my old 1986 Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 !

The Foreman has the old heavy straight axle front end the double shock shaft driven straight swing arm rear axle , it was one of the first Honda's with 4x4 with a metal fuel tank mounted under the seat ; this was the hardest to handle atv's i have ever riden !

Anyone who has riden any quad with a straight axle , even one with the straight swing arm axle on the rear know's how it felt the first time one wheel drop off into a hole or rut in the trail ; the other wheel come's off the ground then Triple that feeling when this heavy front Differencial come's off the ground on the old Honda Foreman 4x4's !

I liked to have messed in my BVD's the first ride i took over some rough and rocky mountain trail's , when that other front wheel came off the ground it liked to have scared me to death ; but after the first 6 month's i could go on some of the roughest trail's i just had to gun it and be ready to throw every once of me onto the side that left the ground !

I lost over 30 lbs. in the first year of riding this beast , on my next doctor's appointment the RN and the Doctor ask me if i had lost weight ; but after i told them how i lost the extra weight they weren't trilled with the idea of me riding atv's especially with no leg's below the knee's !

Just the mention of riding motocycles and atv's ,to Doctor's and RN's they start telling you how dangerous they are ; and all the people they've seen killed or maimed for life from accident's i alway's tell them you've got to go someway and i've learned first hand what not to do driving anything from an electric wheelchair to an automobile !

Well i've strayed off the suject again , so back to it i still love Honda , Suzuki , Kawsaki , Yamaha , Arctic Cat and Polaris they all made some good quad's ; and every brand made will have some flaw's and even some lemmon's from time to time so i like riding no matter the Brand Make or model !

Just be carefull whatever you ride , and keep them maintained ; and they will last as long you do !.........

 

You people are really help me tons. Thanks for all the info. The clicking seems to be getting a little louder each time i ride, so it will be going to get the valves checked soon. Still have to get that trailer though.