I've asked about this in the Yamaha forum but nobody seems to have any info.

Has anyone with a Wolverine ever heard of the automatic clutch making a rattling noise between 2000-2500 rpm? I have a 2004 that has done this since it was new. At first I thought it was the valve clearance as I was told by the dealer that the 350 is noisy in the top end. I adjusted the valves to spec and also checked the cam chain tensioner.

This noise is more like a rattle and it is coming from the side case area where the clutch is. It stops rattling above 2500 rpm and below 2000 rpm. It is quite loud but the clutch seems to work ok. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

You may want to drain the oil and take the clutch side cover off, my Wolverine made that noise,and it turned out to be a couple of the springs for the auto clutch shoes had broken, letting the shoes flop around,clanking against the cover, plus the fact you may have hard pieces of broken spring floating around in the oil.

 

Thanks 95Wolv. I plan on doing just that this spring. The only thing that bothers me is that the rattling doesn't get really pronounced until the engine is warm. Don't know if the clutch is the culprit for sure but it's worth checking!

 

95Wolv is on the right track. I had this exact same thing happen. I bought my quad used and it had this "rattle" from the get go. After riding it for a year, not worrying about it, thinking it was a bit of slap in the timing chain, the second spring let go and the quad wanted to move while just idling.

Needless to say, those little pieces of spring worked over the inside of the clutch cover. Looked almost shot peened. The other damage it caused was it chewed up pads on the clutch weights. Yamaha doesn't offer the clutch weights seperately. You have to buy the whole thing.

If you need parts, a good place to check out for OEM parts is www.metricpowersports.com

I'd check it out asap. While at it, try to reconstruct the spring ends to verify you have all the pieces. I was lucky and was able to.

 

Thanks for the input! As soon as it warms up here in northern NY I'm going to pull it apart (probably July-August LOL). I'll post the results. This noise is not normal. Many people have blamed the valves but this is a different rattle. Hopefully not too much damage to the clutch has occoured.