Strange noises while riding your quad are both irritating, disrupting, and alarming. You don’t just hear nature sounds and a powerful engine anymore. You may struggle to hunt when your machine reveals your presence. And you wonder if something is wrong with your machine that could be dangerous or expensive. This post will focus on how to diagnose and fix a clunking noise in your ATV front end, so you can enjoy your ride again.
Before reading on, make sure what you’re hearing is a clunking sound and not popping. These sounds indicate different issues.
There are many potential causes of clunking noises, but one of them, and one that’s both easy to check and fix, is tire pressure.
Check all four tires, and make sure they are all the same pressure.
They should also be the same size. This is a more expensive problem, but if you have unequally sized tires, you need to make them match.
Depending on the cause of your clunking noise, one of these methods might reduce the clunking noise while you’re on the trail.
Obviously, if your quad only clunks when you’re using 4WD, ride in 2WD where possible.
If you ride in low range and use only a little throttle, you might make the noise stop.
You might also stop the noise if you immediately follow switching out of 4WD with shifting into reverse.
If you use these methods, remember that you still need to determine the cause of the clunk. It may be relatively harmless, or it may be an indicator that you need to repair or replace part of your machine for your safety and to prevent higher repair costs down the line.
Consider the various symptoms your ATV is displaying. When do you hear the clunking sound? When using 4WD drive? When using either? Does it happen when you’re accelerating? Where does the sound seem to be coming from? These clues will point you toward the cause of your clunking sound so you can then narrow your search to something like clunking noise coming from tires of an ATV when stopping or how to fix clunking noise in front ATV wheel.
Different models are notorious for certain problems, clunking among them. By researching your ATV model, you might get an early clue to what is probably causing the clunking sound.
The first step to fixing ATV knocking noises is to determine the cause.
You can determine if the cause is a CV joint while driving the quad. Make a series of figure eights using sharp turns. If a sharp turn produces a clunking sound, you can determine that your CV joint is bad and which one it is by the direction you were turning when you heard the sound.
If you notice the clunking while accelerating, the culprit may be:
a universal joint
the front differential
loose differential rubber mounts
a loose axle mount
If you notice clunking right when you engage your 4WD, you should look at the splines in your transfer case.
Clunking could also be caused by a faulty:
Driveshaft
Prop shaft
Clutch
EBS
Ball joints
Bushings
Bearings
Struts
Cage in the gear case
Armature plate
You may get lucky and only need to grease a component. Something small and inexpensive may need to be replaced. Or the problem could stem from something that could seriously damage your machine or be unsafe. Clunking is not an uncommon occurrence, so much so that some people will tell you to ignore it, but you should always determine the source of the sound.
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