mga

it might be the way i was holding my phone...i was on my back upside down taking that picture. But, i'll double check and see if it is higher. I'm getting frustrated with this damn machine!

i believe i found the problem....ugh...the frame has a slight bend to it on the side that was hit. I took measurements from the rear of the frame on both sides, using the lower A frame as my focal point. I found the left side is off by a little over 1/2" to less than 3/4". That's telling me the bend in the frame is what's throwing my camber off. I took a picture of the bend. The normal bend is on the left side of the picture, the right side shows a sharper bend, which makes sense since that was the side that was struck. I'm not sure how it would even be possible to straighten that out. I don't have the tools for that kind of work. You can see the right side is bent in. I'd hate to sell it because I'd have to tell any buyers the frame is bent. Somehow i'll have to deal with it. I'm wondering if i could make different mounting brackets for the lower A arm so that it would be in the correct position...(.thinking out loud here) I need to move it forward about 3/4". That theoretically should solve my camber problem.

Brought it in the garage yesterday because i was bored. Jacked the front end up and removed the left wheel. I checked everything i could see to find why that camber is off so much. I posted the wrong angle of the wheel, it's actually out at the top, not the bottom. I compared the old A arm to the one i replaced, they're the same. I compared the hub to the one i replaced, they're the same...$160 for nothing. I looked at the frame from underneath, i could not find any significant bending. It's like either tho top A arm need to be shorter, or the bottom A arm longer. I know i'm missing something..... the wheel sits like this: "/". not that extreme, but you get the picture. This is really taxing my OCD to fix this! Being a former toolmaker and machine repairman, this bothers me. 🙂 The damn thing starts and runs great, except for that wheel. I'll have to look at how the impact of what they hit changed something there. So, i'll bring it back in and continue to look for a cause. It has to be something with the frame, since i replaced everything else.

i replaced the A arm and i replaced the hub, put it all back together and. that left front wheel is still off like this: "\" it's not that bad but its the only symbol i can find to show how much the camber is off. Since i replaced just about everything on the left front side, I'm going to take a closer look at the frame. The lower frame looks OK, but the upper frame part seems like it's higher than the opposite side. My theory is if i could somehow pull that down to a near normal position, it will kick the upper A arm out, thereby pushing the top part of the wheel out to a more normal position. I'll pull it in the garage tomorrow and take some frame measurements to see if i'm correct. I can drive this as it is, but i can feel it pulling slightly to the left because of the camber being off. I'll post back to let you guys know what i find. If i'm right about the frame my next issue is going to be how to fix it. lol

unfortunately for me, i believe it's bent. I spent a lot of time taking measurements and comparing the right and left. The left one in question, for example, the tie rod part is almost an inch higher (upwards) than the right side one. Other measurements tell me it's kinda twisted. I'm afraid it might be putting stress on the bearings on that side. so, i'll just buy a used one and hopefully this corrects the issue.

judging from the impact on that lower A arm, do you think the hub might be bent as well? I've tried everything and i thought i fixed the problem of it not tracking straight, but, it still wants to drift left. So, now i'm considering what you suggested about the steering hub being bent. I've look for a replacement, but "no longer available" and i saw one on ebay for $175. used. so, my question is, since they're probably ductile cast, i might be able to heat it and possibly get it close to original shape? It seems like the lower part of the knuckle is the culprit. I'm thinking that is was bent back when the A arm was struck. I know trying to bend it back is like "backwoods" stuff, but i doubt my old lady will let me spend $175..lol A man's gotta do what he can.

I put that missing spacer in today, seemed to help a lot with making the wheel straight vertically, still slightly off, but i'm not going to let my OCD get the better of me on that issue. I can live with it not being perfect. I did play with the Toe-in, Toe-out and it seems to be like 90% better! When i push it in the garage it goes straight and it handles much better driving it. But, i'll go back to the Toe adjustment when i get the time and see if i can adjust it to the exact specs. Before when i pushed it, the handle bars would move to the left. Now, it seems OK. For what i intend to use it for it should be OK. I have a steep hill out back and i needed this to get up and down it and carry stuff like saws or other tools. It's about 200 ft long and it's a killer to walk up it. That little 400 has some balls when i give full throttle. thanks again for the help!

what i do is look at the parts diagrams for the model i have, write down the part number on the item i'm looking for, then compare that to a parts diagram for another model. Often they are the same part numbers. If not, i do a google search.

i found a few people on facebook selling parts from yamaha big bears. I'm in kentucky, and i've bought a few parts from a person who will ship and accepts paypal. They're parting out a 400 kodiak and very reasonable too.

once i correct that issue, i'm going to take your advice on adjusting the "toe-in" with the boards. Sounds easy enuff....(famous last words) i do appreciate the feed back..brainstorming is the best teacher.

well.....i think it's mostly "pilot error" on my part. I removed everything again and I re-tightened the ball joints and made sure they were seated, which they were. I removed the wheel and the plate were the lugs are on, and i noticed ( according to parts drawings ) there's a spacer ( washer) missing. It goes between the lug plate and bearing seal. It was never there to begin with! Thats why i had a little play in the wheel and i could rock it top to bottom. Without the wheel on it was very little movement, but, add a 26" wheel and the movement increases a lot. To show my wheel issue, the right wheel is "I" and the left wheel was "\" when on the ground. ( only symbols i could find to show how the wheels sat...lol) So, i ordered that part and there's a small "O" ring for that too. Hopefully when that spacer solves my mystery . I checked the frame closely and there were no bends and all the mounts for the A arms were good. it's this part: collar 90387-281v8-00

here's where i'm at: the front wheel camber is off. This is the side where some damage was to the lower A arm, which i replaced. The wheel is leaning in at the top, where the other wheel is "almost" level veritcally. So, i jacked it up and removed both wheels and took measurements off the frame to each ball joint and several other points. The problem is they are all equal. So, now i have to figure out what else was bent when they crashed this thing. The level i pl;ace on the hubs shows I have to somehow move the left wheel out about 3/8" to make it even with the right side. Since everything measured the same, i'm thinking that maybe the welded mounts on the frame might have moved (?) I also compared both lower A arms...the bad one and the one i bought. They were both the same. Upper A arms had the same measurements on both sides. the attached picture shows how bad the original A arm was bent

i lowered the idle and it did improve a lot, but, there's a little slop on the linkage. I'll look at the manual today and see what's accptable. I learned to let the engine warm up a bit before i can get that sweet spot of idle.

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

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!

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.

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.

i'll lower it and see how it reacts

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