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Help...my Rhino is failing in multiple ways...

9K views 28 replies 6 participants last post by  Floydboy76 
#1 ·
Hello, and thanks to all who read this and lend an opinion to me, I greatly appreciate it. To be upfront, I'm a very novice person when it comes to mechanical stuff, and I figured the best way to learn was to stop relying so much on paying local shops and start digging in on my own, cautiously of course. I do have a copy of the service manual, it's a 2006 Rhino 660.

I bought a 2006 Rhino 660 from my cousin who sold it to me for very cheap because of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. I took it to a local repair shop who had high reviews and a good rep among known people, he said I had to have the top end rebuilt. He rebuilt the top end and fitted it with a new Wiseco piston, and had it up and running for me when I took it back after 2600 USD, this also covered him cleaning the carb, cleaning the "CVT" as he put it, new battery, new tires (ITP Mudlite XL).

The second day of driving since the rebuild, I noticed that the electrical fuel pump my cousin had installed failed, I replaced the pump and all was working again. I used this pump:

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_6101050

I started driving it for a good couple days around the area and my throttle cable snapped at the end of the gas pedal, instead of re-soldering it, I just spent the 30 bucks and got a new one. I installed the new cable, and had to really mess with the throttle body a lot to get the cable in there. Apparently, functioning this throttle body a lot put a lot of fuel into the system and when I started it, the motor backfired and blew off my intake boot. I freaked out and thought I killed her, but a mechanic I know said it happens often and just reclamp it back onto the intake manifold. Did that, and started driving it around some local trails and having a blast. However, I still notice a gasoline smell whenever the machine is garaged at my house, and when I go back out to fire it up again there is still that smell. Mechanic suggested my float level could be off with the carb.

Then the next issue has reared it's ugly head, while driving I noticed my temp light came on, I drove it about another 1/4 mile and it was still on. I understand now that I broke a cardinal rule in the mechanical world, and yes....next time I see the light I will kill the motor right away and let it cool for a minimum 30 minutes, it's hot here in the Houston area. This was dumb of me, but not the dumbest thing I did...keep reading :(

Perhaps the biggest mistake of them all here, was the fact that after I had cut the motor off for about 10 minutes, we were burning up in the 95 degree weather and I was only a 1/2 mile from my home. I fired it back up and drove home, and had a noticeable loss of power on the way, I would gas the motor all the way and only got about 25% power the whole trip home, I drove it for about 5-10 minutes back to my house and it really started struggling at that point. I noticed that I couldn't even get it up the driveway, so my friend and I had to put it in neutral to push it up my driveway into my garage. I haven't touched it since.

After researching with Google, I'm terrified that perhaps I blew the head or cracked the block, but hopefully that isn't the case. My current plan is to bleed/burp the radiator and refill with coolant, then pressure test to look for leaks in the cooling system. I am also going to change the oil, I was told to check the dipstick to see if water had mixed with the oil. My fan is coming on also, but I was also told to clean the radiator itself as it may be blocked by gunk/mud/dirt/debris.

Anybody have any recommendations or things I should check? I also noticed that I am having the "R" light (reverse indicator light) blink on and off on me whenever this overheat issue happens. Think the "top end rebuild" shop is to blame here?

Thanks again for everybody's help and advice, it is greatly appreciated before I take on this project!
 
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#2 ·
look on ur cylender and see if u have this. On my 700 its an indicator to see if ur eng got too hot. Its like a brass plug and its black. I overheated once and nflow the company that rebuilt my motor said if that plug isent discolored it dident get too hot. Your motor may not have this


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#3 ·
Welcome to the site sorry to read the story, but you need to do some checking like you said, milkie white oil and a carb float problem. I'm not a mechanic either, so you have a ton of searching on here.
 
#5 ·
One of Life's little lessons..

Most of us have been where you are now - so don't feel alone. It sounds possibly that your cousin did not maintain the Rhino as good as he could have and you are experiencing the consequences of that. Since you state you are not much of a mechanic this machine will be your teacher - might be a little expensive but what education isn't?


Proceed with your troubleshooting as you described. How does the oil look - milky? You got a problem for sure. If oil appears okay definitely change it. Pull the plug - any moisture there? With plug removed disconnect ignition and crank it over - nothing should come out of that hole but air & fuel vapor. If okay, install plug. Before you get too deep into swapping parts (and if it runs), start it up and listen for noises that are above and beyond what you're used to hearing. If everything appears to be normal (no unusual noises, leaks, or odors), take it around the block to see if power is what you're used to.


Let us know the outcome.
 
#6 ·
So I changed the oil last night, all looked well. Flushed the radiator after finding it was bone dry, probably the cause of my overheat issue. Also, people who rebuilt it didn’t put the engine fan housing on but doubt that affected temperature.

Cranked it up and re-topped radiator and reservoir, all ran well. Also adjusted carb float according to service manual specs.

Now the problem is revving it in gear, it rev limits repeatedly but only moves 5-10 miles an hour at best. Assuming something with the CVT. Mechanic friend said probably have oil on the belt or maybe a bolt backed out or something, opinions? Advice?

Thanks for the input so far folks, greatly appreciated.
 
#7 ·
You may have a flopped weight in the cv, pull the cover and see what the belt is doing when reved up in neutral.
 
#9 ·
The weights and belt look great, do you have a different CDI you can try? It hits the rev limiter under load in gear, maybe the wet clutch.
 
#10 ·
What is that ratteling/grinding noise i hear when u let off it. Never really paid attention to mine when i do that but i think i would have remembered that noise


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#11 ·
I have no clue what that noise is, maybe the problem causing slow speeds? I don’t even know what a CDI is, something to do with the computer? I did see a video on how to reset a rhino computer, would that help? This only started happening after the overheating episode.
 
#12 · (Edited)
#13 ·
CDI is the computer, have never heard of resetting one.
 
#15 · (Edited)
It will limit you at 25mph, u will b fine up to 25mph. Since u said u r only getting 10mph u have another problem
But i would still check the wire to stop the light from coming on
Mine came on for months but it never limited my speed
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#16 ·
So talked to the local Yamaha mechanic again who has been graciously helping me via Q&A over email for free, need to bring that guy a bottle of scotch and a couple ribeyes or something.

He suggested after all of this I have described above to try putting it into 4wd and see what happens, he said it's common for the driveshaft coupling and boss to both strip out and if it moves in 4wd, then we know where the problem probably lies.

Unfortunately for me, 4wd was enabled and didn't move the Rhino whatsoever, I'm out of ideas here, anybody have any thoughts as to what could be next?

Thanks again for all the input.
 
#17 ·
Just talked 45 mins to a Yamaha mechanic, when I sent that video of the CVT in action my bike was in neutral, he said put it in gear and then watch, if not spinning while in gear then it's wet clutch.

If spinning while in gear, look to see if driveshaft is turning, or at least wobbling like it wants to turn, then we know it's driveshaft/rear diff issue

Then, if sheaves are spinning while in gear, and driveshaft doesn't move at all, looking at issue in the lower-end, and that's gonna be catastrophic and cost lots of dough, and he said "you probably don't have the tools or expertise to do it, and you don't want to jump into there if you don't know what you're doing"
 
#19 · (Edited)
Hopefully thats it


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#20 ·
Well got it all installed and sure enough, pressing the gas makes the unit move, but now I have another issue, I'm leaking oil from the clutch housing. I think when I replaced the gasket I made a major boo boo, I used a dremel tool with the sanding attachment to get the old gasket material off because I couldn't make it come off any other way. Being that gasket is paper-thin, I probably warped the mating service to where it's not flush anymore, re-ordered a clutch housing assembly with all new bolts, gaskets, and seals to see if that fixes my issue.

Could the leaking oil from that assembly (approximately 1 cup of oil overnight) cause an overheat light? I got an overheat light while driving it for about an hour yesterday. If not, what size pressure tester would be needed to test my whole coolant system? 15psi is what should be used to test it all correct? Thinking this could possibly be a bad water pump or something, I recently did a bleed and flush of the radiator and topped it off before all this happened.
 
#21 ·
If it wasent bled properly thats ur problem did u bleed it up top and at the bottom also. These things are a pain to bleed


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#22 ·
Did u bleed up top and bottom both? Did u have it jacked up so radiator was above motor? Doubt an oil leak will cause overheat


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#24 ·
Im not sure i have larger aftermarket radiator


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#25 ·
Youtube has a great vid for bleeding just search(how to bleed cooling system yamaha rhino) its the first vid. Disreguard when he goes into eng bleeding tgats for a new engine


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#27 ·
1.the reverse wire is a green wire that drapes over the engine and will get a bad connection due to the heat of the engine.
2. when has the belt been replaced? is it hard or many cracks on the outside of the belt?
3. is the grease in the primary clutch hardened?
4. no more than 5 psi is needed to carb. anything above will push past the float.
 
#28 ·
1. I don't think the reverse rev-limiter is an issue anymore, I'm not seeing a blinking reverse light and the rhino now moves fine. My clutch was shot, replaced it and everything moves fine. However, I'm getting an oil leak at my clutch housing now, I assume this is when my dumbass used a sanding attachment on the dremel tool to remove the old gasket before putting the new one, probably affected the mating of the flange assembly. Ordered a new one.

2. Replaced belt already, old one was at 30mm

3. Grease is fine, but cleaned it all off and applied new grease to everything.

4. Fuel is no longer a problem, not getting a gas smell anymore, not sure what changed that but I'm not complaining.

The issue now is the over-heating and the oil leak. What size pressure cap adapter is needed to test this radiator? Anybody know of a good affordable gauge set for the dash? I'd like to see fuel level, water temp level, and also oil pressure.

Thanks!
 
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