<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: nedflanders

geez, I never knew it was that common. It's a drag cuz my son loves jumping it and wheely-ing, along with the break-neck throttle response. HOWEVER, riding our terrain, and the friends we ride with, most of them are on 4x4 monsters, and we're on technical rides.



I had a closer look now that I received the flywheel puller and stator today. I think I've been led horribly astray by the Suzuki parts guy. There SHOULD be oil inside when you pull open that magneto cover. Heck, you can see where it leads to the drain plug. Behind the starter gear is the crank bearing, and it needs oil. not sure if the stator gets oil too, or not. Maybe once the cover is back in place, it somehow seals off the stator part. but oil in the area i described is normal and it should definitely be there.



this whole post was started because I wasn't sure if I should replace the gasket on the magneto cover. The 'zuki dealer said there's no oil in there, it's more like a dust cover; don't bother replacing. WELL, he's wrong! There is mega oil in there!! anyways, gasket isn't broken, but I'll err on the cautious side and apply some of that 3bond liquid gasket, aswell as leaving the old gasket in place. 3bond should fill any cracks, and it is like a semi-soft material that doesn't change the thickness.</end quote></div>

If he rides a lot of really slow technical stuff, I would recommend a gearing change for sure.....

I would drop the front sprocket down one tooth..... maybe that would keep him from stalling it in the woods.....it would take away a few MPH on the top end but it would help a lot....

People sometimes forget that the z400 was designed as an MX Race machine......it was built to rev fast and leap 80-foot doubles. Suzuki bottled it up with a restrictive exhaust for the general public to enjoy as a trail machine also, but it was built to race......

With the 450s the z400 was relegated to a role of trail machine and all around play racer, and it is great at those things for the most part.... but in the tight, technical trails, crawling behind 4x4s, it is not really at home at all.

Any time you are clutching a lot, or lugging an engine, you are doing potential damage. Constant hot restarts are murder on a starter, especially a very light weight one like on the z400. After all racing machines are meant to start and keep running until the race is over.....

 

Good job Ned on gettin' er back together and saving some $$$ [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

thanks w226.

hey ss97, cutting back the top speed wouldn't bug me one bit. so one less tooth on the FRONT gear? how many teeth are on the stock front gear?

even our tech rides are only for sections at a time, then trail or logging road. he usually gets thru most of it by watching the others, then gunning it to get over the same obstacle we just crawled over. THE DAY of the damage, something wasn't running right and it kept stalling. I'm blaming it on the 148 main jet. I put the 124 back in and the snorkel cover back on, and it runs great.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: nedflanders

thanks w226.



hey ss97, cutting back the top speed wouldn't bug me one bit. so one less tooth on the FRONT gear? how many teeth are on the stock front gear?



even our tech rides are only for sections at a time, then trail or logging road. he usually gets thru most of it by watching the others, then gunning it to get over the same obstacle we just crawled over. THE DAY of the damage, something wasn't running right and it kept stalling. I'm blaming it on the 148 main jet. I put the 124 back in and the snorkel cover back on, and it runs great.</end quote></div>

Yeah dropping the front sprocket one tooth.... I think they are 14-tooth stock, but my mind is blanking right now.... but either way all you have to do is count the teeth, which you will want to do anyway to be 100% sure. I've seen many stock machines vary from year to year with a slight gear change.

I know exactly what your son deals with. Riding with 4x4s is challenging for a 2wd sport machine at times. And you do have to hit obstacles in a totally different way (as you said) with speed and finesse instead of power.....

But it he drops the gearing in the front, he will be able to hit those obstacles at a more controlled speed and still be in the meat of the power-band. The z400 is rev happy and really does not start making power until the mid-range and up. You have to ride it a little like an old 2-stroke and keep the RPMs "popping" and on tap.

I ride with a couple guys on 400ex and Raptor-660s and they can just idle through the woods and never stall. I have to ride a gear lower in some areas to accomplish the same things, and in comparison my engine is screaming.

It is funny because they ride mine and give it back and are like "this thing seems slow as heck to me" and I tell them to take it out again and this time don't short-shift..... I tell them to keep it pinned 2-3 seconds past when they would normally shift..... then they come back and are like "holy crap I didn't expect that mid-range hit, this thing likes to scream"

So if he gets a little more "scream" going in the tight stuff, he won't stall it nearly as much... and he can control the speed of those often sketchy moves in the woods with the 4x4s.....

 

thanks for that! DANG, I just had that front sprocket cover off while doing this job. I'll check it and see. I can get the stock number easy enough.

 

ss97 is right, it's a 14. I have a 13 on mine, and I think it's perfect for the trails.