Hello. I just picked up an Awesome (used) 350 Raptor. It is in excellent shape. But I have never ridden the bigger Raptors. The tranny seems a little sloppy and choppy. Is this normal? I changed the oil immediately and it was like 0W. It was thin as hell. So I added my favorite Mobil 1 10W30. Reverse seems to work much better. But the trans is still a little sloppy. Also the clutch starts to grab a little past 1/2 way out. And Neutral is a pain to hit.

The motor seems to wind up to redline Quick, but not really going fast. This quad is nothing like my Suzukis. It's quick but not alot of Tq. It seems to have more top end in the motor. I know the sprockets have alot to do with it but this is beyond gearing. I'm just referring to the motor.

I ripped out the Spark arrestor and left some of the center housing. It's alot louder (duh) but what a difference. the revs really get up there in a hurry now.
But if anyone can fill me in on the tranny issue or possibly suggesting running a thicker oil or whatever info you might have, please chime in. I'm all "eyes."

Thanks
Casey

 

Sounds like the basic yfm350 tranny, but if you put regular car oil in it change it right away, regular oil has friction modifiers that make your clutch slip and wear out, motorcycle and atv specific oils are designed for wet clutches, and aside from protecting your clutch they should help smooth out the transmission too.

Some of the slop comes from the shifter, because they have pivot points and a linkage instead of a direct mount shifter like you would find on a dirt bike. Replace the stock shifter with a custom direct shifter from ebay (only place to buy them) or get a honda 400ex shifter, and just exaggerate the original bends on it so it lines up where the stock one used to be. The 400ex shifter would work without bending it, but it's a little too close to the motor and a little too long for most riders.