I bought a 98 Wolverine a few months back, granted it is older and has been used a great bit, the motor runs very strong. However, every bolt, nut, clamp, fasenter, etc. that I have touched has either become rounded off or stripped. Doesn't matter if you use a soft baby touch or put everything you got into it. Everything from the oil drain plug, to the rear caliper, to the oil filter, to the front master cylinder, to the....you name it has caused a problem. Why is this? I have owned several atvs and bikes in the past but no Yamaha's until this one. Is this a hardware issue that Yamaha needs to address? Being a mechanical engineer, it seems to me that they need to up the stress of there hardware to with stand years of abuse and radical climate / temperature changes. Maybe Yamaha needs Titanium or RC-65 steel or possibly a re-take of stress class and lab in engineering school. Anyone else have a problem?

 

I was helping a friend take the clutch lever off his raptor and the same thing happened to us. It seems as though the metal these bolts are made of is to soft. I don't know if yamaha dealerships have special tools to take these off with or what. Yamahas are great quads other than this.

 

I agree the bolts/nuts/ etc are junk. Although I have found that the right tool for the job takes away some of this problem. I've replaced a few bolts on mine, my brother has them missing all over the place because he hasn't went and bought replacements yet. He said the other day that he is ordering a kit with a mix of assorted nuts/bolts and washers for his yfz. I have been replacing mine with whatever I could find in the shed, or going to the local hardware store and finding something to work. The biggest problem I have had is a brass screw on the carb bowl. That dam thing wanted to stip the head, so after I got it out, I replaced it with another one. Next time I will replace all the bowl screws with allen heads. I think this is a problem for a quite a few folks on here, and think Yamaha needs to address the problem for future quads.

 

Don't ask me how many tire lugs i've stripped... I've never had a problem with the any engine bolts though. Just the other stuff

 

yep, definitly crap i was changing my lil brothers oil in his raptor and barely cranked
down on the oil filter bolt and the damn thing snaped off like it was made of plastic or somthing
the replacement bolt from yamaha was like a completely
different material, a way stronger material so i think this
happens quite often