My zilla started making a low howl after a long day of trail riding. It would only do it when making a hard start in 1st gear from a stop. Easing into 1st it wouldn't do it, otherwise it ran fine no problems shifting/popping out of gear. I don't know if this is related, but I also noticed that when I had the quad sitting on an incline, turned off and in 1st gear, it would slowly roll a few inches..stop..then slowly a few inches again. I don't know if that's normal or not, but my friends 400ex didn't do it parked at the same place.

So is it my clutch or my tranny? I assume it's one of the two since the noise sounds like it's from the engine. This was my 3rd ride on a tranny fluid change w/Bel Ray 85wt, and spent most of the day in 1st or 2nd climbing rocky trails. I plan on changing the tranny fluid again, but am worried this could be more serious.

PS I tried a search and didn't find anything similar

 

Hmm, Probably not enough info to make a good guess...
I've been around alot of 500's, and they all seem to be quite noisy in the gearbox.. Keep your oil serviced frequently, and your clutch adjusted..

 

Thanks, I drained my tranny fluid today, pretty dark. I'm going to check the clutch plates, today or tomorrow. And sadly I when I pulled the magneto cover, I discovered some play....barely there when cold, but worse when it's warm...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] It wasn't there when I bought it 2mos ago!

 

I had a noise that sounds like it could be the same as yours. It was clutch chatter. It's not a big deal. Mine went away on my LT. It did it in my KX 500 and I replaced the fibers. You should still look at it just to make sure. If you do change clutch plates, I would go with the stock ones. They are very good. Don't listen to the aftermarket hype.
As for your quad rolling and stopping. That is normal. Mine does it to. What that is, it's the motor slowly turning over. When it seems like its stopped, its slowly rolling thru its compression. When you see it rolling again its rotating around until it hits compression again. Just like if you were kick it over slowly with your hand.
Now your mag. You say it has play? LT 500s are known for main bearing journals to "egg out". If it's worse when its warm, it makes sense because the aluminum expands and gives more clearance. The aftermarket offers a brass sleeve fix for it. I did my own using stainless sleeves rather than brass. It works good.
Let us know what you find.

 

Thanks! Rolling through the stroke makes sense, I hadn't really thought it through (obviously!)
I'm having a time trying to get my clutch cover off, can't find my rubber mallet to get things moving. When I bought this zilla I had planned on doing the main bearing fix, just not quite this soon!

 

Halfliter, you said you did yours out of stainless. Where did you get the parts, and how did you do it? I have access to a drill press and pretty much everything else that it should take to do it. I'm taking my cases apart anyways so labor is not and issue.

 

The clutch checked out fine, plenty of life left. The springs were 1.27", service limit is 1.22", so I'm not sure how much life is left there, it would be nice to know how long they are new.
I may just replace them to be on the safe side. I think my problem is just a noisy engine and fluid that needed replacing, I read someone's post that they change the fluid in their zilla every other ride, I think I'll do that.
Thanks all for the help, much appreciated.

 

where did u get the brass or stainless sleeve for the bearing? I am going to have to do the fix on my 88, and was wondering if I would need to take it to a machine shop or what

 

I made mine from 17-4 stainless because I didn't think a soft material like brass would be worth it. I'm not an engineer so I'm not saying brass don't work. Brass is a hell of a lot better to work with than 17-4 but I felt more comfortable with it. I do a lot of aerospace work so I had bar stock laying around for it. You need to bore the existing sleeve/case out to accept the new sleeve. Be carefull not to go too deep or too big in diameter or you will break thru to the oil side. My friend almost did and later it cracked and leaked. I'm sorry but I don't remember how thick I made the sleeves, I think about .150 per side. Just check how thick your case is first.
GoldenChild, I would replace your springs with Barnett. They don't cost much and they are the only thing that is better than stock.