I am getting play in the steering shaft on my 04 kodiak 450 and was thinking I had seen something on here about this any help would be great . I have about 1500 miles on it now. I am not sure if its something that can be tightened or something that has to be replaced?

 

Hey man. I have an 03 kodiak 450 and it started doing the same thing. I have about 1900 miles on it now. I also have itp type-5 rims with 25" bighorns. But my steering started acting up before I put the new tires and rims on. I also heard another guy who had the same problem on an 01 kodiak. I'm hoping its just an adjustment issue. Please let me know any info that you can.

 

Where do you see the play in the steering? If it where the steering column connects to the pitman arm then some people have remove the factory nut and replace it with castle nut and retighten it. I haven't done this yet but will be doing it in the spring. Its a little to cold to be working bare hands right now. If you are not exactly sure what I am talking about www.rivaracing.com has alot of great screen shots.

Later
Marc

 

The BigBears are the worst about it that I have ever seen. There is a 22mm nut on the bottom of the steering shaft on the Bear that you can tighten up and that will help for a while (it might be the same on the kodiak). After time though it will just stay loose due to something being worn out, The nut is tight on mine but I now have permanent slack in the steering untill something breaks I guess.

 

Its too cold now to really start looking but I thought I had seen something on here about it that I belive was a "easy" fix and if I knew right were to go I would fix it before it got worse thats all! I have my nose to the ground and am on the trail for thr fix! LOL as soon as I find it I will let every one know and If I find it myself on my wheeler then I will let you know also! Thanks

 

So most of you think it is the large nut on the bottom of the steering stem. I hope that is all it is. I am going to look at that soon to see if that is the problem. Sounds like it is a common yamaha problem. maybe the dealer would know a permanent fix. I'm sure they have dealt with many of them by now.

 

The big nut used to loosen on my Grizzly all the time. Took it off and blue lock tight'd it.

 

When I asked my Dealer about it they told be to put red locktite on it. That sloved the problem with the nut coming loose, now I have slack that is coming from somewhere totally different.