Hey all, just joined a couple of weeks ago after picking up my first Polaris. I grew up on Yamaha Warriors and Honda dirt bikes. It has a few things that need attention before I put it to work this winter plowing, but overall it feels like a solid machine. I know how much forums love seeing photos, so here it is before I gave it a bath:








The tires appear to be original and as you can see, not very worn for being 20 years old. The speedo/odo quit working at something like 350 miles so I'm really unsure on the mileage. It shifts in all gears well, though it does seem to have a bit of miss. The PO said it runs better in the cold (which I'm ok with since I'm going to be using it mainly for plowing my 100ft long city driveway). Apparently he had someone jet the carb when he kept it up north at his cabin. I'm going to rebuild it with a factory kit to see if that eliminates the miss. Oil injection is still functioning. The coolant bottle has a crack in the neck that points down. I plan on pulling that apart and JB Welding it back together. Doesn't seem that bad to make me spend $75-100 on new or used part. Other than that, the PO had the wrong plug in it so I swapped that over to a stock one and the air filter is a K&N (not sure if I like that or not, I'm a big advocate of paper filters in all of my cars, but it seems fairly clean when I inspected it, though I do need a new pre filter or a sock to go over it).

I picked up a used Cycle Country setup from a gentlemen on CL. It was $275 with a 48" blade, push tubes, and the mounting plate. I will need to modify the plate a little bit to fit the Polaris but it shouldn't be too big of a deal. I'm still debating on how to attach it to the frame since it's meant for a Bombardier 400HO. We will make it work though!

I'm hoping to get a few questions answered here as well. I've tried the Polaris forums but haven't seen much activity or maybe the folks over there aren't too familiar with the older models. So here it goes:

First off, I will mention that I have downloaded the service manual already so that should help me out with anything I need to do. It's great to be able to get your hands on those types of things for such an older machine.


1. Speedo/Odo is inoperable. Cable was not attached to the back so I re installed that and still got nothing. Maybe just a loose connection on the other end? I plan on chasing that down to wherever it leads but also looking for any pointers from you folks.

2. Carb rebuild - pretty straight forward? I've done a few lawn mower carbs, I can't imagine this is much different? Any specific things I should know/do while I'm in there? Also, would a stock rebuild be my best bet or is there something better out there?

3. Transaxle fluid - From my readings, it seems the Polaris Gear Case Lube (or AGL I see it called as well) is what is most talked about. Is that my best bet to change out the fluid? I'm sure it's never been done...

4. Reverse override - When I picked it up, it was intermittently shutting down when I'd put the level in Reverse. Now it's every time. I've read that changing the fluid solves about 90% of the gear shift problems but I'm thinking this might be something else? Any pointers? Tips? Tricks? I don't really want to have to hold the override button when I'm reversing with a plow trying to move it up/down etc.

5. Exhaust - It seems a bit loud to my untrained ear. I'll admit, I grew up on 4 strokes but I did have a few 2 stroke dirt bikes that were louder than this. I think it's just the connection at the head itself, the rest of the parts look to be in good shape. Am I taking a huge risk trying to remove that connection, clean it up, and maybe installing a new donut or gasket in there or am I just going to break studs and curse myself into selling it? lol


Thanks for any input you guys can provide! I hope to learn a lot around here and contribute when I can!

 

Cleaner machine than some of the newer ones I've seen.
Remove the cable from the adapter at the transmission and see if the cable turns ok or is frozen. Plus you can jack up the rear end and while in neutral turn the rear wheel and see if the inner part of the adapter turns. If it doesn't the small square key could be broken. Item #24 on the break down.Dirt Cheap Yamaha, Honda & Polaris OEM Parts & Accessories – Cycle Parts Warehouse
Carb cleaning is straight forward,stock main jet was a 200, 30 pilot jet. Good from sea level to about 3000 ft or so. Can be a tad rich and load up if you poke around like some of the farmers/ranchers down here. I've had to raise the needle clip a notch or so to help lean them down and on some dropping the main jet down to a 190. Just depends on your altitude,temperature,riding habits.Plenty of carb kits on ebay,etc plus several videos on this Mikuni carb. I'd use AGL on the gear case. 3/4"(19mm) drain plug on right hand side of the bash plate.
On dying when you place it in reverse is almost always the reverse limiter shorting out.You can do away with this module by pulling the black wire from the circuit board under the tank cover. Has two black wires on the board,one for the cdi kill circuit,the other is the limiter. Just tuck it up out of the way. You'll bypass the limiter and have full power and awd in reverse without having to push the over ride button. ALL these limiters would fail.
Exhaust systems can be noisy on these models as the springs wear and you can change these out if necessary along with silicone around the bell part of the exhaust sections to help seal them better. Just feel around to where you feel any exhaust leaks. Sometime the exhaust manifold itself can leak if the nuts loosen up.
Always use Polaris Demand Drive hub fluid for the awd. Plus check the counter balancer dip stick located under the carb. Make sure it's clean oil and not milky(water pump seals leaking) plus only holds about 100 ccs of motor oil.

 

Wow!! That's a lot of useful information for a response. Thanks a TON OPT. You are the man.

All information has been noted and it will certainly come in handy this weekend while I poke around on this thing.

If I come up with anymore, I will be posting! Thanks for the comments.

 

Can't get the link to come up on the free pdf service manual. When/if I do I'll post it for you if you don't have a manual. You really need one for the 400 as there is a lot of things to maintain.

 

No worries, I've already found it and downloaded it at home. Thank you!

 

As stated looks pretty good for the age. My 98 Prarie gets similar reactions . I'd think about new tires though especially if you plan to plow much. Your's aren't wore bad so best part is you could get a little $ out of them if you advertise (there's always someone that would consider half worn out an upgrade to what they have).

 

Alright, I have a small update.

I managed to a find a Cycle Country plow setup on CL for $275. Not too bad considering he repainted the whole setup with some real thick nasty black paint. Sweet!







It is awesome. Simple as that. I bought the winch at Tractor Supply on sale for $50, wired it all up so it's as hidden as I could get and mounted the controls right up front and center on the handle bars. I managed to find a OEM (or Cycle Country maybe?) winch mount on Amazon for like $70 and that thing went on with a cinch.

The plow mounting plate did need some modification to fit my quad as it came off a Bombardier 400 or something like that. We cut it a little, drilled some holes, and ultimately bolted it to frame with some U brackets made by Super Strut from Home Depot. They fit perfectly over the square frame bars that run under the machine and it bolted up very nicely. The only thing I'm contemplating doing is getting a power turning setup so I can also turn it from the seated position but I'm not entirely sure if it will work well since I have a lever that locks it into place....plus I think I'll have it angled most of the time anyway so I guess I'll let this first winter learn me, ha.

Anyway, next up is changing the trans fluid and 4x4 fluid out with fresh stiff, and I need to pull the coolant res and epoxy up the crack in that. Oh, and I need to pull that black wire mentioned above so I can shift into reverse all the time. Stupid switch is even giving me issues now. Today it kept dying when I hit the override too. It will get fixed this weekend hopefully.

 

Good looking set up. Cracking overflow reservoir bottles were a common issue on these models. Hopefully pulling the wire from the reverse limiter will solve the over ride problems.Always use low range under loads as the clutches/belt can run over 100 degrees cooler if you do.If the old red handled brake master cylinder ever gives you problems the updated replacement m/cylinder this is 10 times better on stopping power.

 

Good to hear that's a normal thing for the reservoir bottles. It seems to hold enough to keep it on the low level line but it won't stay full. I'll get it off and epoxy of the neck on it.

Also, I had kept a drain pain setting under the machine for quite some time while it was sitting in the shed. I'd say a month or so, and the quad decided it would let go of all some red fluid. Being that I've got zero experience with the trans/4x4 fluids that are used in these machines, what might I expect that fluid to be? It was definitely red and I couldn't find any obvious leaks but the area under the clutch cover (big plastic cover on the left side?) was a little damp...? Maybe that was my trans fluid?

I'm calling the dealer today to see what they charge for AGL and Demand Drive fluid. If it's anymore than Amazon, I'll just order it and change out those fluids next weekend.

Thanks for the great responses OPT! I really appreciate it. It's guys like you that keep people coming back to online forums for answers!

 

If it's red someone's been using atf. Atf can be used as a temporary oil for the front hubs as all early models did originally use atf before they switched to the better Demand Drive hub fluid. If the leaks are from the the gear case area,atf isn't a good oil to use. AGL or any good oil designed for chain driven gear cases such as Amsoil,etc.AMSOIL Synthetic Chaincase & Gear Oil