My front differential on my Yamaha wolverine 350 (2003) is clanking and making noise and leaking. Someone ran it without oil.
I’m not familiar with front differentials but when I looked through the fill hole, some of teeth on the spider gear were chipped.
The differential works so far, but it’s noisy. I put stop leak to try and stop the leak but it’s not working, it just keeps dripping (if someone has a quick fix for this besides taking it apart lmk).
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what to do, regarding the noise coming from the diff. It sounds like metal on metal getting stuck then being freed. I’m afraid the differential will give out any second.

My idea is just to swap in a used differential from another atv. Wolverine parts are super hard to find. Can someone please tell me which other Yamaha would share the same differential as the wolverine?
Would the big bear share it? If so what years?

Thank you so much for reading!

 

You can do the research yourself. If you go to the on-line parts drawings such as https://www.yamahapart.com/oemparts/...atv_2003/parts and check if the part numbers are the same. Even if the diff numbers themselves are different, if crown wheel, pinion, bearings etc, are the same as say a slightly earlier 350 Big Bear, you could swap internals if the case doesn't fit.

 

Thanks for the response! It helps alot! Any more help would be awesome!

 

By coincidence I picked up a front diff repair kit for a Honda 300 in our stores yesterday, it said "also fits 200 to 2005 Wolverine and 98-99 350 Big Bear" plus a few other Yam 400cc models.

 

How much is it and what does it include?
Like I said I’m new to diff repair, I imagine it’s not hard though.

 

On Hondas it is very hard indeed, years since I did a Yam, but I guess they will be as bad, and the kits are bearings and seals. You need a crown wheel and pinion, so no good to you without them. You need a special tool to remove the pinion, I bought a male female pipe union with the correct spanner size for fitting the allen key style "nut" and welded a handle to it, when rebuilding an Eiger diff, and found it fits many others, including a 250 Honda I did on Monday.

 

I’m selling the atv in question so I’ll try to sell as is or just swap the entire diff out.
I’m looking to buy another used atv for around $5k afterwards. You seem like a knowledgeable guy. Any suggestions on what to buy? I was thinking between a Yamaha grizzly or a can am outlander. Hondas and are awesome but I got a bunch of ‘em already. I live down south where we have swamps so I’ll be riding in a lot of WATER and mud, more than anything for sure.
I’m probably never gonna buy Polaris, they’re just fast junk, and I wanted a brute force but I had a guy beg me not to buy one used because he had 5 that broke on him. All I can afford is used. Thanks for reading!

 

We have avoided Can am and Polaris, sticking to Honda and Suzuki, the local Yam dealer had a good reputation, so we left things Yamaha to him, unless someone comes to us wanting repairs to one. For deep water only Hondas are any good. We maintain Cockle picker's bikes, which go through deep salt water, and nothing will last except Hondas, as their electrical connections are all waterproofed. Suzukis and Yamaha often don't bother on some connections, whereas the one next to it will be waterproofed. The Suzuki 500/750KQ is a good auto, modern Honda autos are over complicated and the gearchange jerky, but the current 420 and 500/520 manuals are good bikes. Old 420 manuals (pre 2014) have bad rear axle problems.

 

When dealing with a damaged and noisy front differential in your Yamaha Wolverine 350, it's practical to source a used one from a compatible Yamaha ATV.


 

Is there anyway I can find out which differentials match a 2003 Yamaha wolverine?
I haven’t had luck finding that out. Does someone know?