Sometimes when I apply the throttle to my KQ450, I get no immediate resonse, then it makes a chirping or barking sound and the machine lunges forward. I get this only in high range. I talked to a couple of other KQ owners. One said this is normal for the KQ; the other said I need a new transmission belt. Does anyone know if I should be worried about this?
Thanks,
Terry

You might have a lot of dust or mud accumulated in your front clutch not letting the rollers return to center when you come up to a stop or... or it might have to do with your riding style.
I described it in the thread below this but it seems the guy got pretty defensive, so you never know...
But here it is.
The belt bark is a mini version of what you hear when a big plane comes in for a landing and the stationary rubber tires touch down at over 100 MPH onto the tarmac.
The King Quad (and other brands of continuous tension CVT) bark happens when you lock up the back brake in 2wd until you come to a stop, or when you come to a stop while still on the throttle, such as when you become stuck in wet snow.

When this type of situation stops the CVT partway into its operating range, the belt will remain stuck somewhere down the rear clutch instead of its returning all the way to the outside 'park' (greatest reduction) location, as it normally does.
The front clutch however has nothing to prevent IT from returning to its fully open/smallest pulley size, and it does this as soon as you let off the throttle. This results in some slack in the belt, in a system that's supposed to be constant tension.
Therefore when you put it into another gear, or start out again, or rev up again before the drive train can turn, the front clutch will spin a bit inside that slack, throwing the weights out and narrowing the sheaves, and the belt gives a bark as the spinning front clutch grabs the belt again.

Anytime you stop the drive train by locking up the rear wheel when the CVT is somewhere within its range, and then you let the motor drop rpm more than the CVT is 'set' for, you get slack in the belt and when you rev it up again you'll get a bark when the front clutch spins up again, the weights fly out, and the clutch grabs the belt while all that crank mass is spinning. It's not just a Suzuki thing, any constant tension CVT will do this.

That bark is pretty much harmless, but that's why you hear it.
If you like to skid to a stop and want to avoid the bark, then whenever you stop like that you can either back off the brake and let it roll a bit just before coming to a full stop, or otherwise you can put it in neutral and give it a brief little rev before letting it go back to idle and putting it in a gear. This lets the clutches reset themselves and it will be business as usual when you take off.

See if it does the chirp in four wheel drive. If not then I suspect that even without knowing it you might be either skidding to a stop or stopping while under power. (it is much more likely if you stop fairly quickly while going uphill)

greeley guy, if you need some help cleaning you clutch, let me know. I had to take my clutch apart when I did the coop 45 mod. I am down in longmont so it wouldn't be hard.
shawn

It would be of great help if the particular species of bird be identified. For instance, is the "chirp" a multi-note stanza like a house wren, or meadow lark, or is it a near single note grunt more like the blue heron?

Just a lackluster attempt at some humor on a COLD and windy miserable day. Glen more then likely diagnosed it right.

Well, I'm not 100 percent sure which end of the bird the sound came from.

Glen, thanks for the detailed description.

Shawn, I'm sending you a PM.

Terry

well, Greeley guy came down to the house yesterday and we tore his clutch apart and cleaned it real well. He said it helped it alot. I didn't see alot of dust in the clutch housing (like I was expecting). Mainly it was dirty roller weights. So we cleaned everything up real good and put it back together, and he said it was good to go.
Main Drawback to helping a friend out. Couldn't supervise the wife's walmart trip, so she spent almost $400 last night. Man, I hope that lottery ticket yougave my son last night is a good one!!!!!
shawn

The chirping bird has been silenced. I didn't win the Power Ball but you saved me enough money to buy a couple tanks of gas. Thanks!
Terry

Way to go to help a fellow rider. A little of the Golden rule goes along way and comes back to you two fold!!!