I have a 00' team alba wolverine and tring to make it part-time 4x4. I used to have one of the big 4x4 kawasaki mules, and they had a box about 4"x4" that the front driveshaft went trought. I guess the shaft was cut and splined and the box worked as a transfer case. And all it had was a simple linkage on, which could be extended up to rider height on a wolverine. The only other thing I could think of was mating a front axle off a 00' kodiak and put it on a wolverine. I know the driveshaft is straight on the kodiak from the transmission to the front axle with no u-joints. The wolverine shaft comes from the other side of the engine and I don't know if could be adapted. Also I don't know if the gears are the same.

 

i know this isn't going to help but, dealer told me 2002 will have the push button like the kodiaks. The wolverine, and the big bear will both go this way.

 

I wonder where your dealer gets his news. I was out Saturday and asked the Dealer if he had heard any rumours and he said he had heard nothing at all, but there is a dealer meeting later this month so he might hear something then.
Did he tell you about any other changes? Anything that would make it worth trading in and gettin ga new one?

 

Nope thats all i heard. Was buying a new ride, when some guy asked them when they were going to change them over to push button 4x4. dealer said that next year the bigbear, and wolverine will be. trying to go the way of the kodiak. thats all I heard.

 

I not worried about the new wolverine I want to make mine part-time. I know it can be done just not sure how yet.

 

I'd really like to know why you want to go through all that trouble. What advantages do you expect to gain? Just being able to slide the rear end a bit easier? Sorry, I just can't figure out why you'd want to make it a part-time 4x4

 

More speed and power with part-time 4x4. All the power is sent to the rear tires instead of front and rear. Plus it is not that much trouble if your not lazy or have any idea how to work on atv's and I mean rebuild engines and trannys not change the oil.

 

I really don't understand why you think it will give you more speed and power. Sure, all the power will be going to two wheels, but those two wheels will still be pushing the whole bike. As for top speed, with out changing th eoverall gearing there's really nothing you can do to make the Wolverine go faster, as it pulls it's top gear easily anyway. The only way to get more speed is to make rev higher, or change the gearing.
As for the trouble, just going through the trouble and expense of putting on a Mule style box that will allow you to lock or unlock the front driveshaft is trouble enough. I just think you time and money would be better spent on other improvements, if power and speed are what you want. If you just want to be able to slide the rear end around, that's another thing.

 

There must be some logical reason other then just wanting to powerslide to have selectible 4 wheel drive. I don't think the engineers at Yamaha would have bothered putting it in the Kodiak and Grizzly if it was just for that. The engineers at Polaris probably wondn't have bothered with it either. Plus there are several people in the Honda fourm that complain that Honda hasn't done it yet. Everyone that I know personally who have the selectible 4x4 option swear they will never buy another quad without it. If, for lack of any other reason, fuel prices contiune to rise (which they will) the fuel savings by having the quad in 2 wheel drive most of the time would make the modification worth it.

 

I used to own a '96 Wolverine and always wished it was selectable from 2 to 4 wheel drive like a King Quad. Good luck on your project. If you are sucessful it would be something you could market. I wanted to have the option to be in two wheel drive just to make the quad more fun. If it had a 2 wheel option it would then slide and steer more easily without the annoying front end grabbiness you get from full time 4 wheel drive. To me, sliding is one of the most fun things you can do on a quad, especally in the winter. When my dealer and I talked about it he mentioned the possibilty of cutting the drive shaft into two pieces and using a sliding sleve to connect them. Trouble with this is that you would need to sacrifice your drive shaft and get it machined (which I'm sure costs a lot) to try out the idea. A transfer case type arangment would be much better but also hard to implement. Good luck.