91 king quad 300 front differential clunking noises

[jessewr1981]

When my king quad is in 4wd in any gear, there is a loud clunking coming from the front differential. Sounds like its coming right from the center of the differential. Is it toast? 4wd still engages but clunks at slow speeds especially. 

Front diff rebuild? Bearings? 

Im still learning so any help is very appreciated.

[Mech]

Drain the oil and check it for metal flakes, or lumps.

[jessewr1981]

I just changed the diff fluid and the was a little bit of metal flakes stuck to the magnet cap. The old fluid was in there since 2017 i believe. Is it normal to have a little bit or theyre shouldnt be any at all? The old oil was muddy green.

I will drain it again and see what i can find. 

 

[Mech]

Loud clonking sounds like a tooth off a gear. Just the fact it's got flakes of metal(which could come off a bearing), on the magnet, means  it's time for a strip down and find where that's coming from.

[jessewr1981]

Quad is pretty much garbage if thats the case. Ordering the parts in cuntada will cost me 3/4 of the price as buying a new quad. Thanks for your help

[Mech]

Second hand diff ?

[Mech]

I just had a look at parts for the front diff.. and the prices aren't too bad..   $500 aussie for the two main gears. Over here, that would be about 1/24 of the cost of a new quad.

You never know how much it's going to cost,(or how little), till you pull it apart and inspect it.  It could be that a bearing has collapsed and it's letting the gears skip.. 

[jessewr1981]

Yeah your right i get frustrated easily because i don't know a damn thing about it. I don't mind spending some money on it because it runs good. I gotta find someone that can help in person...

[Mech]

And what about the brakes ? Do the pistons slide in the cylinder ?

Your bike looks tidy enough. It's probably worth repairing. The diff comes out easily. You could take the diff assembly to a bike shop or find someone to do the work on it, a mechanic that's familiar with diff assembly would be best. Perhaps take it apart yourself first to check it's not got too many broken bits. If you strip it you lay everything out on a bench in the pattern it is in the bike, left parts to the left, right to right, front to front. The good thing is it's not like a diff in a car where if you get the adjustments wrong it will whine bad and wear out early. That front diff only has any load on it when you're using the 4x4. And most of the time, if you  just fitting new bearings, nothing else needs adjusting. I dare say that even a new set of gears(OEM ones) and bearings will be ok with all the old adjustment shims.

[Mech]

The 1999-2004 suzuki manual has a detailed description of overhauling that diff. The special tools could be improvise with threaded rod and washers/plates, and feeler gauges instead of the DTI gauge.. There is a bit more back and forwarding than car diffs, but it's not really as complicated as they make it sound. Any competent/experienced mechanic should be able to do that.

[jessewr1981]

Thanks alot for your help...

i havent had a chance to look at my brakes again, but i am just going to replace the shoes, springs and wheel cylinders anyways. Its pretty cheap, and they werent in the greatest shape. Id rather have good new brakes then none at all. I also need to look at the adjusters because it seems to be a common problem that they rust up and dont work well. 

As for the diff we are gonna start taking things apart soon to see what is going on. I dont have a good place at my house to work on it, so its at my parents warehouse. Looks like ebay even has a couple refurbished diffs for like $230 or so.  Not having the quad at my house is a PITA

The quad sat for 3 or 4 years so im sure theres a few things that need to be addressed. 

Asides from fluid changes and new spark plug what do you reccomend checking out for maintenance?

[Mech]

Oh. that sounds like a good deal from Ebay.. I'd jump at that. Then it's just a quick swap job.. No wondering about worn things and hassling around finding parts..

I'd be inspecting all the rubber bits on it, like the rubber boots on the drive lines. Give them a bit of a twist and bend looking for cracks in the bottom of the corrugations. The carby has a rubber diaphragm in the top of it, I'd pull that out and give it a bit of a gentle stretch to see if it's got tears or is going to tear. There are rubber hoses to the fuel pump and tap that are probably getting old by now, and are pretty cheap to replace with fuel or vacuum hose from an engineering supply place.Those brake hoses at that age are probably suspect if they've never been changed, apart from the internal delamination and swelling they get cracks you can see on the outside. The front suspension bush bolts have a habit of seizing into the bushes, then turning in the chassis till they wear the bolt holes in the chassis, then they start hammering in there and really wear things up bad. It would be a good simplish job to take the bolts out and grease them. When you tighten them back up you do it with the weight on the wheels because the rubber bushes aren't meant to turn on the bolts, the rubber's meant to flex as the wheel goes up and down. It's important to tighten them up the last turn or two in their sitting position so they aren't preloaded with twist/flex. If you drive it up onto a couple of thick planks or hunks of wood to get a bit of ground clearance it makes that easy. In theory the rear suspension should be at risk of doing the same thing, but I've never seen it on the back.. but you could pull the bolts and grease them as well.. then they won't be seized if you ever have to do the bushes or take it apart.

You could check all the wheel bearings for play or noises. Grab the wheels top and bottom and try rocking them feeling for play, then give them a spin listening for noise, and turn them while twisting them top and bottom(to apply a load on the bearings) feeling for roughness.

You could adjust the valve clearance because that doesn't seem to get done ever..  Air cleaner element can be cleaned, oiled and reused. Oil the gear change and brake lever pivot.. I've seen a lot of those worn out. Cables are nylon lines these days and aren't meant to be lubed. Inspect the chassis for rust, especially on the bottom rails. Inspect the wiring looking for frayed insulation, tape it back up and secure it so it doesn't move if you find any. There are small struts under the front bodywork, from near your knees, they run into the bottom chassis, I've seen those two bottom bolts rust solid to the bit's of tube they go through, the tube's a part of the strut. The bolts go through about two inches of tube and when they seize, they really seize, a bit of grease on those bolts saves a real sh** of a job if they seize in and those two bottom bolts are the best place to undo if you want the front body work off. All the small bolts holding the plastics on are made soft so they can be drilled out if/when they seize up or get chewed screwdriver slots.

Hope that all helps.. I've been fixing and owned suzukis for ..err.. about forty years  haha.