On 2/23/2023 at 8:57 AM, Tiha said:

Kawasaki adjusts the same way. 

Be interesting to see how it goes for you. First time I did it after I bought the machine (used) it shifted really stiff. As much as I have tried over the years it has never been as easy shifting as it was before I first adjusted it. 

And I have adjusted it frequently over the last 20 years I have owned it. 

i got it to shift a little easier, but the only hard gears are getting out of reverse and into first. the rest shift pretty good. I'm going to play around with the clutch some more and see if it improves.  Maybe that idle is just a bit too high, i'll play with that too. To get it out of reverse, i reach down and pull it up by hand. Too bad I couldn't figure out a way to put a hand shift on it right up along the fuel tank.  😄

ha....i just saw them online... not expensive either....i'm going to look into it more

On 3/6/2023 at 5:47 PM, Mech said:

With the wheels straight ahead, prop/lay a plank down each side touching the back wheels, and check the fronts are both in by the same amount, and that both front wheels have similar toe in or out.

Most four wheel  drive bikes seem to have a bit of toe out, rather than toe in..

 

i'll try that today. i did eye ball it and made some adjusting, but that sounds like the way to go.  it appears to be a lot better, but using the boards seems more accurate.

thanks!

40 minutes ago, Mech said:

Do you mean it keeps veering slowly to the left on a straight flat road ? People have described things as pulling left, but then when we discussed it it turned out that the real problem was it turned left easily but needed to be wrestled to turn right.

If you have the wrong amount of toe-in it will normally just get erratic and keep trying to veer left or right, but not be happy going straight. It is important though that both tie rods are adjusted to the same length. If one rod is longer than the other, even though the overall toe in is right, it can cause pulling.

Are you sure the caster and camber are right ? Some makes have different length/width A arms on different years. If the new arm is a bit different to the original it will upset the camber and/or caster.

Other things that cause dragging to one side are dragging brakes, uneven tyre pressures, bad wheel bearings..  And it could be a problem at the rear.. 

gees.....thanks for all that...i think. The A arms were the same, i compared them before installing it. The bearings are new, all ball joints are new. Brakes have been checked...no dragging. I'll start playing with the tie rods. Even in neutral when i manually push it on a flat surface it turns left by itself.

I'll do the tie rods first and see what happens

Is there any special way to align the front end so that it drives straight?

It's not bad, but it still could use an adjustment. I'm suspecting the tie rod was improperly adjusted to compensate for the bent lower "A" arm which i replaced.

return springs good? throttle cable straight? polishing the valve slide is a good place to start, or make sure the cable isn't hanging up. maybe adjusting it for more slack? they call for about a 1/4" free play for the "choke" cable lever.

when i needed parts i'd look at two different model parts diagrams and compare part numbers to see if they were the same.

14 hours ago, Gwbarm said:

Hows the Big Bear doing ?

starts and seems to run good, but has to warm up a bit first. It jumps when put in gear, but i've read at serveral places that a Big Bear is notorious for hard shifting and a slight jump when puit in gear. two thing i need for it is the fan motor controller, which i ordered, and eventually a pull start assembly and it's 100% done

when it rains, it pours. Too bad about that oil filter housing. I've been buying parts from guys parting out Big Bear on facebook. Some will ship, others not.

9 hours ago, Gwbarm said:

Idle speed could also cause this is it normal or a little high.

i'll lower it and see how it reacts

1 hour ago, Gwbarm said:

Increase tightens the clutch, when you feel resistance toward increase, back off counter clockwise about 1/8 to 1/4 inch 

ok, thanks. my post above was typed without my glasses on...obviously.

i wanted to adjust it because when i put it infirst gear, it wants to lunge forward. i thought maybe the clutch was too tight (?)

ok....so, if i INCREASE the clutch adjustment, it loosens the clutch? and if i DECREASE it it tighternsd thre clutch?

or, did i get that wrong? lol

on my 2k big bear 400, there's a clutch adjustment on the side that says "increase" or "decrease". Only thing service manual says to turn it one way or the other.

my question is, what happens when i decrease it? what happens if i increase it?  does it effect shifting?

I'm not sure if it's ever been adjusted, but, it was tempting to play with...ut, i didn't touch it until i asked you guys.

the two relays...one is a starting circuit cut off relay, the other is the reverse relay, and my post above describes the Fan Motor Control Relay

9 hours ago, Gwbarm said:

I didn't know what it was, and looked on Yamahas OEM parts diagram, on one of the OEM parts buying sites, don't even remember which one, and that's what they called it.

its the Fan Motor Controller. They list it as a "motor controller", they just left out the word "fan"

3 hours ago, Jim Denton said:

Glad you found it. Since you know your way around check out the Sigma Six kit. I did a similar kit to a Mikuni on a Evo I had. Woke it right up. I also had stright shots on it so it breathed well. And an Andrew's EV-27 cam. This kit  will be going on the one I'm building now, along with a 250S cam thanks to a trade with one of our cadre.  Both cams are the same as to almost doubling the duration but same lift. I wantnto see it running first as is.

 

https://www.6sigmajetkit.com/suzuki-lt-f-300-king-quad-jet-kit.html

trying to tempt me??

i bookmarked that link for future refernce.  thanks!

(don't tell my old lady)

22 hours ago, Jim Denton said:

Seems to me that if that plunger is sticking it'd be running rich.

checked that out, seems to be sliding nice, but i found the throttle cable was hooked to the side frame, making an small bend shape to it. I removed it and kept it straight and it seems to be great now. It's those little unseen things that can give you a pain.

Thanks for helping!!

HEATER

5FU-83790-00-00

by Yamaha

1 hour ago, Gwbarm said:

I do not have the lights wired up the fan ground is unhooked because when I hook it up the fan runs horn is not hooked up and these two wires I haven't figured out where they go yet my guess is the carb heater which appears to be missing.

I took the switch out of the equation and went back to the main wiring harness found the blue/black and black wires made a jumper and theoretically when I touch the two wires together the starter should turn, it did not. Im getting a little embarrassed, this is not that complicated of a system, im at the point that I need to devote my undivided attention to this, I have heard that these big bears had wiring harness problems, but this is the first I have run into. This one has been badly abused and not fixed correctly it has the wrong start stop switch with no place for the choke cable, then there is another start stop switch with the wires cut and the choke cable attached. Thanks for all the help, we will eventually get it figured out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

are those two wires for the carb heater? I never connected mine since it's an aftermarket and i don't think it has a heater. I've read that you don't really need it unless you live where the temps are way below freezing.

also, that lever in your other picture...does that engage/disengage the front drive? I read these are full time 4x4 and that would be a nice option, or did someone install that? Need more pics!  lol

i watched both of his videos...very informative..at least for me. But, it was interesting how he diagnosed everything. I thought it might help you.

its pouring out, so i have time to look around...found this. I don't know if you saw this or not

6 minutes ago, Gwbarm said:

Thanks for the help! Battery hooked up, turn key on, the neutral light lights up, the oil temp light does not, the starter does work there is power to the solenoid the starter will work when I jump solenoid with screwdriver.  If I take the starter circuit relay out of the harness and bypass it with jumper wires the oil temp light comes on and I push the start button and it goes off until I release the button.

  You said if you jumped the solenoid, it activates the starter...right? When i turned my key to ON, I checked the wires on the solenoid...they all said 12 volts (the red and two blue wires)  And yours?

and when my key is ON, my Oil Temp light doesn't come on either. Just the neutral light.

28 minutes ago, Gwbarm said:

Trying to figure out why the start button won't make the starter rotate there is a discrepancy in the wiring harness somewhere.

ok, some dunb questions first...with key on, you have power to the swwitch, correct? then power out to the starter solenoid...right? have you tried jumping the solenoid to see if there's any reaction? is it gounded properly? 

I'm no expert, just going by my basic understanding of electronics. 

9 hours ago, Gwbarm said:

Mech just checked to make sure which manual I was looking at it is the 2000 Big Bear / Kodiak WFM400FWA[M]

so, what exactly are you chasing there? maybe i can look at my wiring and compare or let you know what goes where?

9 hours ago, Jim Denton said:

It's a cv type carb maybe check if the slide and its bore are smooth? Being vacuum operated it might be hanging up on the way back down. If the shifter uses a cable try and lube it?

i had to add a new "choke" cable, maybe i need to adjust it better.  i'll try that today.

Finally got it together and running, but shifting seems a bit hard, especially if you have sneaks on. Are they normally that hard to shift?

Also, when i releaase the throttle to shift into another gear, it doesn't seem to lose RPM's fast....it seems to take it's time. I put a new throttle spring in about a week ago and the lever does back off, it's just doesn't seem to die down as fast as it should. I've got the idle down as low as i could get it before it would quit. Other than that it runs good.

There's an aftermarket carb on it, so maybe the issue lies there?

1 hour ago, Gwbarm said:

I know this thread is getting old too many projects going on at once plus honey doos, I v been working on the wiring on the big bear not making much progress, at this point im just trying to get the starter to go by pushing the button

At the solenoid the blue and black wire go to the start button from the start button  if it was not aa generic start button.

There is continuity from the blue/black wire from solenoid to the main harness connector pictured to the far left is the connector to the switch you can see the colors don't match up so iv been trying to figure what goes where and the connector in the center goes to the start stop switch. I hooked it all back up and went to the starter cutout relay and bypassed it and got the oil/temp light to light up, so I know its bad, with this bypassed I push the start button and the light goes out as long as I hold the button down.

So I opened up the switch the black/white and black wire goes to start/stop switch and red/white and blue got to start button.So I thought I would run this by you guys may you can catch something I missed, I think I have a grounding issue somewhere in the harness but haven't found it yet. 

damn, sure looks clean. I looked at my solenoid and it's wired the same colors. Unfortunately, i'm not going to open the starter swwitch because i know if i do, it'll lead to another issue. To me, if the lights go out when you push the start button, it seems like a short somewhere. I'm guessing of course, but you might be right about a bad ground.

1 hour ago, Mech said:

I see there are two manuals here, up to 2000 and from 2000 onwards..  Are you using one of those two ? Which one and I'll download it and have a look at the diagram.. 

are they different? I downloaded one myself.