Needing some advice, I lent my 2013 KAWASAKI mule to a friend and he got it stuck in the creek!

[Desertjeep]

Greetings.  Confession, I’m not a mechanic.  I lent my 2013 Kaw to a friend, almost immediately he called to tell me he was stuck in a creek.  I pulled him out with my John Deere, but now the mule will not operate.  Motor starts great, and it was never submerged, but concerned the high water may have caused some damage.  Checked the oils, they seem to be the correct color, no milky color as some have noted.  But when placed into gear, forward or reverse, it crawls, but has lots of trouble and can’t be driven very far until it stops again.  If I let it idle, I can again drive it a short distance before it repeats itself, stops, let idle, crawls again.  Any thoughts suggestions are greatly appreciated.  The water level was probably 12 - 16 deep.  This is standard, stock mule, unfortunately there are  no lifts.

Thanks group, appreciate any helpful response.  Especially if you have experience with this.  I looked on YouTube to see if there are any helpful videos, none.  Someone with knowledge of this could make some $$ with their own “How to fix” videos.

[TapBoss]

Check the air intake, if it was already dirty and then got wet it could be clogged.

[Travis]

What model mule is it? Sounds like an issue with the CVT system... it should not move when it's F or R until the gas pedal is depressed.

[bjones]

Belt or clutch assembly could be the problem, purely guess. My 610 has a cover with clutch and belt assembly as your rev it up it goes, gotta be in that area. Good luck!

[Ben1098]

CVT belt and pulleys have water and clay slop inside.  Open up and clean/dry pulleys.  May need new belt depending on what the slop was.  Blow out all the stuff from Drive and Driven pulleys moving parts.

[Desertjeep]

Thanks to all in this community for responding.  So I’m strictly an amateur, but I read and then researched the advice generously offered.  I’m happy to report that the case housing the belt drive had a preexisting plug, I pulled that plug and roughly 8 ounces of water poured out.  I left the plug out for a couple hours, hoping to allow it to dry, and it started right up and engaged and drove normally afterwards.  Again, thanks to all who responded, very thankful.