okay my uncle has been calling me about looking at his 400ex. it started doing some wierd crap that im thinking is the clutch just being completely toast but i want to see waht you guys think. okay this was his first quad and he has been riding for 3 seasons and the clutch has been abused by him and two previous novice owners/riders. he let his wife use it and was following her in the tyrex when all of a sudden she went down a small dune and the bike "nuetralized". it would rev but wouldnt move. they towed it back and everything seems fine engine starts and doesnt smoke but it wont move. when he goes from nuetral to first it reacts like normal with a slight, and by slight i mean barely noticeable, jerk from going to first but it still wont move. i told him its probably the clutch but im not familiar with the 4hundy. anyone experience something like this? its a 2001 so its really old. waht should i look at in the clutch? as in fibers and metals? what else could be the problem? sorry if i was vague in the post. i just need a push in the right direction since i dont want to spend a lot of his money when he might as well just get a new quad. thanks for the help!!!
Rene

Pull the dipstick and smell it . If it smells like crap its the clutch. EBC clutch kits go for around 90$, plates, fibers and new springs.

Sounds like the clutch to me also. Mikes advice is good. Ask the wife if she noticed the bike revving up while she was riding it but not going anywhere.

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This may sound dumb but does this quad have reverse ? this happened to my son , we disconected the reverse and let out slack in cable and to my surprise it worked. (by the way he had got stuck used reverse then went to put it back in 1st gear and it never went back in its a 05 400ex very low hours and I never took it in for the spring recall)

no the 01 believe might be the first year and 05 was first year of reverse. okay if the oil smells like shiz its clutch? im going to go take a look at it and hopefully fix it. any special tools that i would need to change it out?

most the time the oil smells like garbage because of the burnt up plates. The neutralizing your saying is just the plates slipping in one another and so the transmission isnt engaging with the sprocket, but it is still going into gear. No real special tools needed if its just the plates, just a basic socket kit with some extensions and maybe a swivel adapter if it has some hard to reach bolts (it shouldnt though if your just pulling the cover off), you will need the clutch plates, the gasket for the cover, and stuff to do an oil change. After instaling the new clutch you might have to play with the adjustments a little to get it set up right so the clutch completely dissengages and so it dosnt drag in gear with the clutch in and burn its self up again.

Had the same problem with my sons 01. Definitely the clutch. Unfortunately when he fried the clutch he took out the transmission which in turn killed the engine. I think he planned it that way to get his big bore kit.

You may need a torque wrench as well for the spring bolts.

alrighty then ill check tomorrow s most likely the clutch since it just gave up all of a sudden. hopefully its just that and i ahve some torque wrenches and ill get everything for an oil change as well. you guys think i should spray some of that copper spray on the gaskets to seal better?

update?

well i went to check the bike seems that he took it in and some dude tighten down the springs on the basket so it would grab but i sniffed the oil and it smells down right nasty so the clutch is toast and im trying to convince him to change it out since i know it will let go again. the clutch is really hard to pull in and so is my 250r so on my list of things to do besides get his 400 in good condition is a new topend and new clutch for the 250r. it deserves it after all the abuse it has had.

tightened down on the clutch springs? that means they were loose or backed out? that doesn't sound right, the bolts are shouldered and should be seated, tightened till they can't be tightened anymore, you can't tighten the springs up more.

I would recommend changing out the clutch pack, if he doesn't, tell him to plan on being towed again.

also, when you do tighten the clutch spring retaining bolts down I'm sure they are in INCH pounds, not ft. pounds, I've seen it many times and people snap the heads off the bolts, ruin the basket, etc. etc. etc.

yeah im telling him to change it.....that shop just mickey mouses everything

What shop? If the bike is in san bernardino take it to Norm's

no bike is in corona. it does pwcs and everything i offered to do the clutch for him but he said it is fine noe but apperantly not! we are trying to get his z400 that he just got up and running.