I have a 2000 Yamaha Kodiak 400. I have always taken care of it myself along with my dad. He is an Sr. Development Engineer for McCauley Propeller systems, so I know he is pretty mechanical. Anyways, I have always changed my oil, cleaned my ATV, I have always pretty much babied it. Well Yesterday my two nephews (11 and 4) wanted to go mud riding, well, I took them for the first time on the ATV. It did GREAT, I rode it into some puddles and mud on the property, Nothing CRAZY. Well it drives back fine, I wash it and let it dry for the remainder of the day in the driveway. Well when I fire it up, it cranks, sounds fine, but when I go to pull around the back yard, it is like it will NOT drive, it starts off fine but about after 5 miles an hours it just doenst go. The engines RPM increases as I push the throttle, sounds normal, but the ATV will not go forward. SO i let off, gently push the gas agian and it starts off and then does it again. So, I call my dad, and he says it sounds like the belts are wet, I guess this QUAD is driven by belts, heck I dont know, he told me to let it sit and dry overnight. Well I did, and this morning it is doing the same thing. ANY SUGGESTIONS? My first thought were OH SH*T, the tranny has gone bad or the rear differential is screwed. But I second guessed myself, when I knew it drove back fine. I dont know, I took the seat off and washed around the battery and filter case, but I dont think that would cause it, has anyone had this happen to them.

Thanks,

Deon

 

If thats an automatic then you might check the belt case .this case is the big black cover on the right side.see if you can drain any water out of it.

 

On the front of the cover mentioned above, there is an air intake for the belt case. On the early Kodiaks it was known to fall off and let all kind of muck and debris in. Sounds like that may have happened.
Buck

 

There is a drain on the bottom of the belt casing. I beleive it is a twelve mm size bolt. You can get to it with the skid plates still on. There is an access hole in the skid plate. And do verify that the air intake tube is attached on the front side of the engine for the belt drive because I have had it come loose. You might want to go ahead and take the time to pull the belt cover on the right side off and check the rubber gasket for cracks also. Undo the fenders from the floor board and then remove the floor board for easier access to the bolts on the cover. Quick note: You will see that there is a braket that holds the exhaust pipe and that braket is attached to the belt cover by two bolts. The easiest thing to do there is to remove the top two bolts on the braket. That releases the braket from the pipe and when you pull those two bolts that are attaching it to the cover, it comes right off. It also makes it alot easier to reinstall the bracket. Easier to line up the bolts to the exhaust pipe.