I bought an 08 model from a dealer at the end of last year which still has used warranty on it. I've hardly ridden it and it's the first shaft drive bike I've owned. I notice there's a fair clunk putting it into first gear so put it on the centre stand (engine off ) and into first gear. There's free play moving the wheel forwards and backwards before I can feel the resistance as the wheel turns the gearbox cogs. With shaft drive I expected none.
Can a couple of you please tell me if yours has similar free play?
If it's a fault I want to know before speaking to to the dealer to avoid any 'they all do that'
I've attached a video but am not sure if it's playable - this site won't accept mp4 files so I converted it to mpg which seems OK.
Most bikes with a shaft can make a right clonk as they go in gear you would think the gearbox had fell out on the floor , yours sounds normal to me there is always some play if you rock it back and forwards ,,
Yup, nine has about the same freeplay. There's bound to be quite a bit of lash when you consider how many times the power changes direction from the crankshaft to the wheel
Quite normal for a shaft drive Kawasaki.
Much appreciated, folks. I did the same thing with my other bike which is chain drive and the play is about the same. As I said I just assumed there would be none with the shaft drive so am happy to hear it's all normal. Thinking about it, there's going to a bit of play from the rubber bushings inside the rear wheel hub (I forget what they're called)
Once again, thank you.
For peace of mind you can easily remove the rear diff and check everything, I used to pop mine off every 10k miles and apply new grease around the shaft and wheel connection, takes a couple of hours if you have the inclination.