2008 Suzuki King Quad trans slips when wet

[ninhalo5]

Hi all, A friend of mine that I ride with has a 2008 king quad I believe it's a 450 and he has this issue when riding for awhile say 15-30 minutes through water or real soupy mud that the transmission starts to slip horribly in 1st and in 4th.

If he lets it sit for an hour after it starts slipping it'll run fine again and stay that way until he goes back in the water.

Anyone have any idea what might be causing this? my guess would be water is getting into the drive train somewhere causing it to slip and once the water dries out it's fine. though that confuses me because if water was getting into the transmission somehow there would be water in the oil. Could there possibly be water in the differential making it sluggish? the differential has these strange flimsy rubber bellows hooked to a little pipe on the top center of each one and I have no idea what they are for, it could be possible one of them is sucking water. My guess is as good as anyone's.

Thanks

[lawny]

I take it this is a CVT drive with a manual shift, if so the water is probably getting in through the clutch air intake/exhaust ports, and the belt is getting wet, so it slips untill things dry out again. There should be a drain plug at the bottom of the clutch cover. If the water is not deep enough to get in there, it could also be the gasket on the clutch cover is not sealing properly.

[Ajmboy]

Most likely that's what it is, water is getting into the belt housing. Used to happen all the time to a friend of mine on his Eiger 400. There should be a drain bolt on the belt housing to let water out. I would also check the seal on that.

* Added manufacturer to thread title.

[ninhalo5]

Thanks that makes perfect sense. I let him know about it and I guess we will check it out the next time he takes the king out for a swim lol