I've got an 03' Z400 that has me stumped.

When sitting in neutral I'm hearing a tick/knock. It's not super loud but definately noticeable. The knock goes away anytime I pull in the clutch, even if it's in gear.

Any ideas as to what I need to look for when I start taking it apart?

FYI: This may or may not be related, but we broke a chain and wedge up in between the case about 6 ride hours ago.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Pulled the oil filter and there is not any shavings in it.

I'm stumped.

Sitting in neutral, motor running, clutch out - there will almost always be a little more noise than clutch in. Reasons are:

• - Mainshaft and countershaft are in neutral position, no drive or driven gears are engaged for power output.
• - Clutch lever is out, so the clutch is transferring motor RPMs to the mainshaft, and turning it at speed.
• - Mainshaft is receiving engine power, countershaft is not turning at all - but it's free-wheeling gears are spinning becuase the mainshaft gears are turning under power
• - There's some slack in the slider gears and free-wheeling gears on the main and counter. Has to be for it to work properly.
• - You pull the clutch lever in, and you just cut motor power to the Mainshaft - the mainshaft will stop turning after it spins down.
• - Clutch lever in, the Mainshaft and countershaft gears aren't turning, so there's nothing in there to spin and make noise.

That may or may not be your issue - but that's why there will be a little more noise in neutral with motor running, clutch out, vice motor running, clutch in. When you're in gear, clutch out, you've engaged a drive and driven gear, and you're transferring power out the countershaft - they usually won't make noise then, due to being in a gear. It a constant mesh trans, so all drive gears are touching all driven gears all the time - everything is turning.

Could be a worn c-clip holding one of the gears on the main or counter, letting one of the gears move around a little more than it can/should. Could be nothing out of the ordinary, too. If it's anything crazier than that, post back about it. Broken gear teeth sound WAY different, both in and out of gear.

It's deffinately not a normal noise, just started doing it this weekend. I'll try to take a video of it running tonight.

Possibly a broken drive (Mainshaft) or driven (Countershaft) gear, then. I demolished 4th gear on one, and it would make all kinds of rattling and knocking noises in neutral. As soon as I'd put it in any gear, the noise would go away immediately. 4th obviously didn't work, so to get back to camp, I had to skip from 3rd up to 5th, 5th down to 3rd, etc. Got me home.

Could be that - and it could be any one of the gears, not exactly 4th like mine...

Only way to find out for sure is to rip into it. Depending on how bad the sound is, I wouldn't stop if you found something in the clutch, for example - I'd split it all the way down, trans out, full inspection of everything...

Well, that gives me something to look for at least. I suppose I'll strip her down as soon as I get motivated to do so.

I pulled the clutch cover last night and found two broken teeth sitting in the bottom under the clutch. So there's no doubt now that we broke a gear. Now I just need to get it torn down and figure out which one/ones.

Ok, I tore this thing down and discovered broken teeth on the reverse gears. Put her back together and started it up and all was well (this was back in late summer early fall). I wasn't real motivated to finish it up until lately and now I'm working on trying the clutch cable. I'm thinking the little clutch shaft that runs down inside the case (on the sprocket side) is not supposed to be turning full circles. (i.e. it should be catching a gear in there to actuate the clutch) This is the first quad I've worked on that didn't have the clutch cable coming in right on top of the clutch itself. Any tips on what I need to look for to figure out the problem?

the clutch shaft will be able to spin all the way around if there isn't pressure on it from the clutch shaft going horizontall across through the basket. try spinning it while pushing on the shaft and it should push it out about 1/2" when you spin it 90*.

what exactly is the problem your having now? Read through twice and didn't catch it

Did you forget to put the shaft back in?

moved

Man, you guys like to move posts around here.

I took the right side cover off and figured out that I had not quite got the shaft pushed all the way in. Now it's on to adjusting the clutch.